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With nearly a fifth of the season already taken place the Premiership table is beginning to have a familiar look apart from a couple of notable exceptions, those being Hull City and Tottenham Hotspur. Ironically these two teams played each other on Sunday and this game encapsulated the situation both clubs find themselves in.
Another Geovanni wonder goal saw the Tigers beat their London counterparts for the second week running with a 1-0 away win at White Hart Lane. Following on from the 2-1 win at the Emirates the Hull City fans must wonder if they are dreaming - third place in the Premiership with 14 points and more importantly three away wins.
It is often the away form along with a poor defensive record that proves the biggest stumbling block for staying in the Premiership for the newly-promoted teams but this is not the case with Hull. Whether it will last is another thing but they could not have done more to get off to a good start.
Meanwhile, Spurs cannot buy a goal let alone a win and with Pavlyuchenko going off with an ankle injury the situation has just got worse. It is now no goal in three games and only four all season and this from a team that boasted Defoe, Keane and Berbatov only nine months ago. It appears that whoever decided it was a good idea to let the three of them go within a short timescale should be shouldering much of the blame for the team's current woes.
But this is the current problem in football, no-one ever seems to find out who does the hiring and firing anymore. Keegan at Newcastle and Curbishly at West Ham have been two victims of the trend but it appears that Spurs are equally likely to have a confusing squad-building structure. This may be effecting Ramos but he is not helping himself.
Refusing to speak to the press in English when by all accounts he is capable of doing so, makes him look like he is hiding and, as we know, any manager who looks like that is a sitting duck to the media - Steve McClaren and the umbrella being a case in point.
He is also very uninvolved on the touchline and this often leaves the impression of washing his hands of the responsibility with Gus Poyet taking the lead. Whilst none of this may actually be the case it is the impression it leaves that often counts the most and this is especially true when the circumstances are difficult.
As it is now an international window the Spurs board will have plenty of time to decide what to do and though the 'you're getting sacked in the morning' chants from Hull City fans might not come to fruition it will be an interesting debate on how they arrest this slump in form and move up the table. It is not yet time to panic but much more of this and relegation will become more than just a nightmare of a possibility.
One thing is certain - any thoughts of deposing one of the top four are long gone which may be the case for all the others pretenders also. Every season clubs such as Everton, Aston Villa, Blackburn, Spurs and more recently Portsmouth and Man City start the season off with high hopes but ultimately fall short and already the signs are not good.
If Manchester United win their game in hand and we assume Hull City's dalliance with the top is fleeting, then already the top four have found their way to the top.
More importantly, though, is the manner in which Chelsea beat Villa and United beat Blackburn that gives a better indication of the gap. Both teams won at a canter and with a depleted team in Chelsea's case, whilst Everton could not win at home again and Manchester City managed to throw away a 2-0 half time lead and lose to Liverpool.
It is almost certain that they will be fighting it out for places in the Europa League and not the Champions League and only Villa can have cause for some optimism that Arsenal's indifferent start may give them a fleeting chance to make the big time.
At the top the next few weeks will be crucial for Liverpool and Arsenal as the former go to Stamford Bridge in three weeks and the latter need to resolve their form against lesser opposition. Chelsea and United have no such issues and will be there at the end and it is just a question of whether the other two can keep pace for long enough to put themselves in with a chance at the end.
As with recent seasons high expectations of change are replaced by the usual order of things and it is now becoming more likely that one of the pre-season 'challenging' teams will get drawn into a relegation battle rather than a tussle to win a place in the Champions League.
