As far as London teams go, are West Ham the new Arsenal? Both clubs seem to have shifted traditional positions over the past 12 months and that has continued into this new season.
The Hammers are in 1st place and the London Stadium is buzzing, so are the players, and so is David Moyes who is erasing all of those memories at Manchester United by every passing week. It's a revelation and it feels like Moyes is creating something rather special at the club who have had to settle for scraps for the past 35 years. But here they are top of the league, two games, two wins and 8 goals. The latest victims were the 5th best team and FA Cup holders Leicester who were battered 4-1. Michail Antonio scored a brace and for the Foxes Ayoze Perez was sent off for a brutal tackle on Pablo Fornals, one can only be thankful that Fornals escaped unscathed. We are only 2 games in of course but it must be quite a feeling to be a Hammer lately.
As for their London rivals Arsenal they have zero points after two games as they were defeated by Chelsea at home by 2-0. The new £97.5m signing Romelu Lukaku opened the scoring and it was a game bossed by the European champions who are looking to add the league title to their ever increasing trophy room. There have been a plethora of articles from the media suggesting that Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta's job is under threat, but it feels almost like an attack on Arteta and it is worrying trend. Arteta's Arsenal did significantly improve in the 2nd half of last season but it is true two 8th places in a row is not the Arsenal that we know. In truth Arteta is a good manager with a bright future ahead of him but he should never have been given such a huge job. You can't really jump from the number 2 job (even if it was at Manchester City) to Arsenal, and that is being proven. Results are not forthcoming. But it seems harsh just to blame Arteta, maybe some of the players and owners of the club have to stand up too. Certainly a winning mentality has left the club though that had happened at least five years before Arteta set foot in the Emirates dug out. Football can be unfair and Arteta may well lose his job soon if the results do not pick up but maybe he deserves until the end of the year at least.
Next Premier League manager to be sacked: Mikel Arteta 1.66, Xisco Munoz 8.00, Patrick Vieira 10.00, Steve Bruce 12.00, Ralph Hasenhuttl 13.00
Manchester City got back to winning ways in style as they crushed Norwich 5-0 and manager Pep Guardiola was full of praise for Gabriel Jesus, who had an outstanding game. So full of praise was Pep for Jesus that one has to wonder if the transfer of Harry Kane is going to happen in this window? As for Kane, he actually played for Tottenham coming on as a substitute against Wolves as the London side won 1-0.
There are some cracking ties this weekend including Liverpool vs Chelsea and Arsenal will be away to Manchester City!
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