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Chelsea's Didier Drogba starts the English Premier League season with another brace of goals. (AP Photo/Paul White)
What must England manager Fabio Capello have been thinking as he watched a Joe Hart masterclass against Tottenham, with the Manchester City goalkeeper demonstrating his prodigious talent with a wonderful display of shot stopping?
The 23-year-old was preferred in goal to last season’s incumbent Shay Given, and they might as well have renamed Tottenham’s atmospheric old ground “Joe Hart Lane” after the young goalkeeper’s heroics.
Hart was superb in the scoreless draw, but City’s failure to get on the scoresheet despite their summer spending spree raises questions of whether the Premier League will once again descend into a two-horse race.
Forget about the so-called big four: last season Arsenal finished a distant ten points behind second placed Manchester United, while basketcase Liverpool limped into seventh.
Neither the Gunners, nor the Reds look especially well equipped to flourish this time around, suggesting that the nouveau riche of Manchester City and Harry Redknapp’s old school English brigade may prove just as likely to provide a genuine challenge.
But if Chelsea’s 6-0 demolition of promoted side West Bromwich Albion is anything to go by, we could be in for another predictable Premier League campaign.
Didier Drogba was the familiar destroyer, as the Ivorian helped himself to a hat-trick thanks to some generous defending from the West Brom back four and a telling contribution from close friend Florent Malouda.
If Chelsea looked imperious then West Brom looked dreadful at the back, and plenty more teams will suffer the wrath of the Blues’ attacking force if they defend as Roberto Di Matteo’s outmatched Albion side did.
Perhaps Aston Villa can once again threaten to break the hegemony at the top of the English pyramid, although they will have to put behind them the shock departure of long-time manager Martin O’Neill.
His caretaker replacement Kevin MacDonald made the job look easy in Saturday’s 3-0 win over hapless West Ham, but whomever replaces O’Neill in the long term, they will have to do without Manchester City-bound midfielder James Milner.
It’s become something of a trend for cashed up City to snatch players from middling teams around them – this is a club Gareth Barry, Joleon Lescott and Roque Santa Cruz call home, after all – and the penchant for stocking their squad at the expense of others has weakened those below them.
Meanwhile, the likes of Bolton, Wolves and West Ham could all struggle once again, although undoubtedly not many expected newcomers Blackpool to thrash Wigan Athletic in such comprehensive fashion, after the Seasiders belted a woeful Wigan side 4-0 on their travels.
Blackpool’s tiny home ground only houses 12,555 fans – although a temporary stand will bring that capacity to over 17,000 for the new season – as the north-western outfit enjoy their first campaign in the top flight since 1971.
Avoiding relegation is the mantra for Blackpool’s colourful man in charge Ian Holloway, but elsewhere fans of some of the top tier teams will hope that someone can break up the duopoly of Manchester United and Chelsea.
One has to go back to Arsene Wenger’s unbeaten Arsenal side of 2003-04 to uncover a different name on the Premier League trophy, and the world’s most watched competition is in danger of becoming a bore should United and Chelsea dominate once again.
It would take a brave soul to bet on the likes of Tottenham or Aston Villa to go storming up the table, but that’s arguably what the Premier League needs if it is to maintain its image as the world’s most popular football league.
Only time will tell just who will thrive in the 2010-11 Premier League campaign, so here’s hoping for an enjoyable ride the whole way through.