Tottenham's defeat exposes the disgrace of the league starting before the window closing, Kevin Keegan damns Michael Owen with faint praise, and why Gareth Barry now resembles good value...
Winners
Chelsea
Top of the league and the only top-flight team yet to concede a goal.
Deco
Two goals in two games for his new employers. At Barcelona, he found the net on just 13 occasions in 112 appearances.
Liverpool
What a contradiction. Victories from bad performances are supposed to be what champions are made of yet talk of Liverpool as title contenders has actually quietened in the wake of their utterly unconvincing wins against Sunderland and Middlesbrough.
So much depends on events in the transfer market before September 1. Gareth Barry seems more likely to remain an Aston Villa player than line up in Liverpool colours next weekend but that is not necessarily bad news. Whatever money Benitez intended to spend on Barry would surely be better redirected towards the recruitment of a winger, if not two. A lack of width is hindering Liverpool's progress, not the failure to sign another central midfielder.
Fulham
The team that Roy built is considerably superior to that of Lower-League Lawrie.
Hull City
Last season it was possible to retain Premier League status with 36 points. The year before, 38 was the magic number. So let's say that 37 ought to do it this year. In which case, Hull already possess 11% of the points required to stay up after playing 5% of their fixtures.
Michael Owen
After applauding his winner against Bolton, and the type of poacher's effort that has become his trademark, Kevin Keegan hailed Michael Owen as the "best goalscorer in the world".
But is that enough? Not according to Jonathan Wilson, author of the excellent 'Inverting The Pyramid: A History Of Football Tactics'. In his review of the changes in modern-day football, Wilson argued that Owen, a player whose principal - only? - dimension is goalscoring, had become a 'player left behind by the tactical evolution of the game'.
Poaching, he asserted, 'is not enough in modern football - or at least, not at the very highest level. Owen could be one of those players who wins teams the occasional game, but prevents them playing good football (which means that he may prove extremely useful to mediocre sides, or even to a good side playing badly, but rarely if at all to a good side playing well).'
It's food for thought for those who hanker for Owen's restoration to the England national team, now managed by Fabio Capello and under orders to produce a possession-based style.
That so few leading clubs, in the Premier League and beyond, operate with a striker who could be termed a poacher apparently supports Wilson's contention. Even last summer, when it became public knowledge that Owen was available for £9m, interest in his services was scarce. Battering rams such as Kenwyne Jones and Emmanuel Adebayor have, it seems, become more fashionable and desirable, and poachers deemed redundant by ultra-organised defences.
If the argument is that poachers will only win matches against mediocre teams and struggle to make an impact against high-level outfits then the statistics of Owen's spell at Newcastle are instructive. In the list of the 14 teams - Blackburn, Man City, West Brom, West Ham, Wigan, Everton, Middlesbrough, Aston Villa, Birmingham, Fulham, Tottenham, Reading, Sunderland and Bolton - Owen has scored against while at Toon, the names of the Big Four are conspicuous by their absence.
Losers
Tottenham Hotspur
With Tottenham still grossly undermined by the detestable Dimi Berbatov saga, Juande Ramos' opinion of the transfer window closing three weeks after the start of the season - "one of the most unpleasant things that currently exist in the game," - is hardly objective. Nonetheless, it is impossible to disagree with the sentiments of the Spurs manager. Season starts shouldn't be like this.
The overlap is regrettable in several respects: the amount of clubs starting the season in a state of flux, the prolonged exercises of player power, the distraction from what should be the real business of football (namely, the football itself), and, to borrow a point raised by The Telegraph's Patrick Barclay, an insult to fans expected to pay top dollar to watch teams that are still a work in progress.
Around the time of year that the Big Four's focus tends to switch to the Champions League, plenty is said - and complained - about the fielding of weakened teams and the harm inflicted on the league's integrity. Yet is that so different to what is occurring now? Of the 20 clubs in the Premier League, at least ten could currently be termed a 'work in progress' and will remain so for at least one more round of matches. In the meantime, an unpalatable distortion of the 'level playing field' principle continues and there are plenty of cheap points to be collected.
Sunderland were one of this weekend's beneficiaries, deservedly beating a fragmented Tottenham side and collecting a victory at White Hart Lane that none of their relegation rivals can expect to achieve once the window is closed and a relieved Ramos is able to reinstall stability. Spurs and all the other teams still in flux, shouldn't, of course, be in such a mess, having had plenty of weeks in which to complete their plans. But it is the league itself which is ultimately at fault for having endorsed a system that means at least three weeks of the season will have elapsed before proper consideration of every team's prospects can begin.
Arsenal
It is not difficult to identify Arsenal's shortcoming. When they thrashed Fulham 3-0 in January at Craven Cottage, Cesc Fabregas and Mathieu Flamini occupied the centre of their midfield. This weekend, their positions were taken by Denilson, who endured a horrific afternoon, and a converted right-back in the form of Emmanuel Eboue. It was an accident - and a defeat - waiting to happen.
Old problems persist. Fulham's goal came from their one and only corner of the match - the Gunners, typically, failed to fathom a single goalscoring opportunity from their nine - and while Manuel Almunia makes few mistakes he also produces even fewer saves. While William Gallas was culpable for the concession, it should be noted that the Spaniard was rooted to his line even when Jimmy Bullard's cross landed four yards in front of goal.
Nonetheless, it will be the success - or otherwise - of Arsene Wenger to recruit a new central midfielder over the next ten days that will have a decisive bearing on the outcome of Arsenal's season. "Right now we are competitive, but in the middle we need someone who can compete and give us another dimension we are missing," commented Fabregas in a weekend interview. "That's all we need."
The Spaniard's summary is probably accurate which makes Wenger's
hesitation in recruiting all the more perplexing. The Frenchman maintains that Gareth Barry is overpriced but, given Arsenal's desperate need, his value is in excess of even £17m.
Aston Villa
Consistent only in their inconsistency, Villa have only managed four wins - against Derby, Bolton, Birmingham and Man City - in their last 13 league outings.
West Brom
Losing at Arsenal is acceptable. Losing at home to an Everton side understrength and underage is worrying. The Baggies may be the best footballing side of the promoted outfits but the evidence of the opening week is that they are the least equipped to survive.
Pete Gill
More will follow...