Seven games in does not make a season, but from a betting point of view there is starting to be some form. Manchester United and Fulham have only played six games, so there is even less evidence in their cases, although both look likely to come good in October.

The big betting money has been following the bigger scores. Liverpool’s last gasp win at Manchester City 3-2 was 24/1. Unfancied Bolton’s 3-1 win at West Ham was 49/1. The newly promotoed clubs have done well but have not been scoring and only Stoke’s 0-0 at Liverpool stands out as a mark of their resilience.

Most teams have enough about them to suggest that the bigger teams may not have it all their own way, which points to goals scored. Or at least Chelsea and Manchester United may not have it all their own way. For the rest it looks like a dog fight. Joe Kinnear could in fact be Newcastle need. A bit of the crazy gang approach from the old Wimbledon days and a few **** was enough to stifle Everton. Tottenham must find some form. Hull must be halfway to survival so that suggests another team to go down, of which, as it painful as it may be to show no faith in a young English manager, Blackburn under Paul Ince look possible candidates. They are away to Bolton next time around which will be a good test of their Premier League viability.

Fulham entertain Sunderland which will also be a six pointer one way or the other. Fulham have been playing the football and losing. Sunderland have been stealing results. Stytle meets substance.

While the rest of football was actively engaged in the globalisation of their Premnier League brand, one club was noticeable going the other way. Good old West Ham paid £6m to Lazio for Valon Behrami, paid for by the sale of John Pantsil and Bobby Zamora  to Fulham for £6.3m. They off loaded the once promising Richard Wright to Ipswich, for an undisclosed fee, Anton Ferdinand was sold to Sunderland, for another undisclosed fee thought to be about $8million and  George McCartney also went to  Sunderland for another £6million or so. So that is £15 million or so in the bank and relegation on the way?

Paul Ince’s Blackburn host newly promoted Hull both with victories under the beklts, albeit Blackburn’s surprise win at Everton was the more jaw dropping. Hull looked organised against Fulham but this will probabloy be another story. Home win. Get all the odds here

Get all the odds here

It is always a greater risk betting on the first Saturday of the season. There is no guide to who gets out of the starting blocks quickly or whether this will be a high scoring season but there are a few interesting bets.

The games to avoid are probably Hull against Fulham which has draw written on it or maybe Fulham will have the firepower. People have been writing them off as potential relegation candidates but I am a fan of Roy Hodgson. Onj the other hand I wouldn’t mind betting this could be Hull’s only win for a long time.  It is a hard call at West Ham where Wigan who finished strongly last year are not going to play the kind of football the east Londoners like. It is a tough call to see if either Spurs or Liverpool can win away in the north east at Middlesbrough and Sunderland respectively, Maybe, maybe not.

The first four games alphabetically look home wins:

Arsenal should beat newly promoted West Brom, perhaps not without a scare or two

Aston Villa should be too strong for Mark Hughes Manchester City who will have £18 million Brazilian striker Jo upfront, but £18million is not enough to buy a place in the Olympic team and with ructions backstage cannot be a help. Some smart money says Hughes will be a shoe in at the first Premiership side in enough trouble to sack their manager. That’s Newcastle then.

Bolton should take care of newly promoted Stoke who can start their freefall back to the Championship.

And Everton will not allow Paul Ince’s Blackburn much space.

£10 on those four pays £83.

Compare that to the obvious banker that Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United are all at home and all win - £10 would pay £19.

There is a free £10 bet for new members at BetClick - win and you keep the money, lose and, well, you don’t. They pay it.

Bet Manchester United

The goalless draw played out by way of a friendly by the teams of those wily old soccer assassins Alex Ferguson and Claudio Ranieri last night may give some pointers to events about to unfold. United have a problem scoring goals without Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. These two players above all represent Manchester United’s class, the more so on the pitch than off it where they seem to want to rival each other as spoilt brats of the Premier League. On Sunday, United go to Wembley to play the showpiece Community Shield against Portsmouth who have their own new strike force in Jermaine Defoe and Peter Crouch. They also meet Portsmouth as their second game of the season. Their first is Newcastle in what looks like a leisurely start to the campaign to retain the Premier League and another showpiece game in the European Super Cup against Uefa winners Zenit St Petersburg, probably now without a striking Arshavin. In September they have just three fixtures - Liverpool, Chelsea and Bolton. Ferguson will have needed to have greased the engine by then.

Liverpool are noteworthy slow out of the blocks. They travel to Sunderland for the first day of the season, entertain Middlesbrough who punch above their weight against the better teams, get distracted by the European Cup against Standard Liege and then visit Aston Villa who were scoring for fun at the end of last season. Rafa Benitez will need to find a rythmn quickly. The bad news is that in September they also face Everton.

Arsenal are looking the part again with just the question mark about who will actually tap the ball into the net. They are young, fast and play attractive football on the harder surfaces in the sunshine of early seasons. West Bromwich Albion, Fulham and Newcastle are first up and don’t look likely to be given any change. They also have what should be an easy September before meeting Tottenham and Everton in October. The tough stuff starts in November with both Chelsea and Manchester United.

Luis Felipe Scolari seems to have the charisma to further bond and fuse the Chelsea fighting spirit with impressive wins on their travels. 5-0 against an unfit AC Milan is still 5-0. But they have some testing games against teams that would hope to break into the top four starting with Portsmouth, then Spurs, then Manchester City, then  United, then Villa. These are games that are going to matter and if the Blues can get the points in the bag, they are probably worth more than ther equivalent games for their rivals. It will also be a test of their mettle. If they are top of the league by the end of September, everyone else will fear the worst.

For those of you in denial, there are a lot of friendly matches taking place across Europe on which you can bet here. Intriguing is Fulham against Celtic which might five a glimpse of how Roy Hodgson’s influence may shape the Cottagers and if Gordon Strachan tightest of squeaks to steal the Scottish league will lead to new developments. If you fancy the easiest of bets the Super 14 1-2-x jackpot is now standing at £132,422 which is worth a punt of anyon’es money, surely?