Chelsea can spoil Villa's sparkling opening

In his first week as chairman of Aston Villa, American Randy Lerner was full of praise for the manager, team and supporters.

Last week, Lerner attended his first match as the new club chairman in Villa's 2-0 win over Charlton, and the American described the atmosphere at Villa Park as fantastic.

Describing boss Martin O'Neill as "awesome", Lerner said the fans' reception had swept him off his feet.

In just under two months, O'Neill has succeeded in bringing a smile back on the fans' faces and it will not be long before Villa Park will be filled to its capacity again.

Since he replaced the axed David O'Leary, the Irishman has felt the remarkable response from the players and fans as these have shown a sense of pride and ambition that was sorely lacking in the past few years.

O'Neill is also aware that every Premiership match is a challenge, certainly a different situation to when he coached in Scotland where the real confrontations for his then Celtic team were against Rangers.

New signing Stilian Petrov, who worked with O'Neill at Celtic, said the team have no intention of surrendering their opening run of six matches without defeat in the Premier League.

Yet, matches don't come bigger than Chelsea, especially when you are playing at Stamford Bridge. This venue has become a burial place for the opposing sides as the Blues have embarked on an unbeaten run of 47 Premiership matches.

Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard admitted that he felt a huge relief when converting a penalty against Fulham last Saturday, after missing three of his last four penalties.

In the Champions League, Chelsea consolidated their group position with a 3-1 win at Levski Sofia, where Didier Drogba netted a hat-trick.

Good travellers

Tottenham-Portsmouth. After their 0-1 home defeat to Bolton on Monday, Pompey will again be on their travels, where they have taken seven points from a maximum of nine.

Yet, boss Harry Redknapp's troubles could well worsen if the allegation that he accepted a 'bung' is proven.

Spurs cannot find the magic formula of last season when they gave a very good account of themselves.

At White Hart Lane, they only lost two matches and it will be a severe test against Portsmouth.

In 2005-06, the Londoners doubled up against Pompey with wins of 3-1 at home and 2-0 away.

Man. United-Newcastle. Newcastle have seldom made life difficult for the Red Devils in the Premiership. In 13 visits to Old Trafford, the Toon are still to register a win. They will also have to do without suspended defenders Titus Bramble and Celestine Babayaro.

In midweek's Champions League action, Manchester United won at Benfica 1-0, courtesy of a fine goal from striker Louis Saha.

United's assistant manager Carlos Queiroz has tipped Cristiano Ronaldo to become the best player in the world.

Newcastle's Glenn Roeder has urged Obafemi Martins to keep his cool in front of goal. The Nigerian responded with a brace in Thursday's 2-1 defeat of Estonia's Levadia Tallinn in the UEFA Cup.

Charlton-Arsenal. The tumble of the Valiants continues slowly but surely as they have now lost three straight Premiership matches.

The Gunners were glad to obtain their first win at their new home against Sheffield United and now that they knocked down that barrier, expect them to become as consistent at the Emirates Stadium as they were at Highbury.

On Tuesday, they were again in front of their own fans when they beat former European champions Porto 2-0 in the Champions League.

Bolton-Liverpool. For the umpteenth time this season Liverpool will be involved in the programme's early kick-off.

After a run of negative results, Liverpool won their last two home matches and in Europe defeated Galatasaray 3-2, including a gem of a goal from Peter Crouch.

Sam Allardyce, like Harry Redknapp, is implicated in the illegal payments scandal that has rocked English football.

Bolton's win at Portsmouth was the first away three-pointer since December 2005.

Everton-Manchester City. The 'all-blues' clash at Goodison Park will present a good duel for two in- form strikers - Andy Johnson of Everton and Georgios Samaras of City.

The Evertonians are one of the two sides still undefeated, along with Aston Villa.

Stuart Pearce wore a big smile last Saturday as he steered his team to their second win of the campaign, against West Ham United.

City's other success came at the expense of Arsenal, also at the City of Manchester Stadium.

Blackburn-Wigan. The Rovers registered back-to-back wins against Manchester City and Middlesbrough that saw them climb to mid-table.

Last term, the Rovers collected four points from this meeting with a home draw and an away win at the JJB Stadium.

Despite resting several first-team players in last week's League Cup tie, where they were surprisingly eliminated by Crewe, Wigan still found the going tough at home to newcomers Watford and had to be content themselves with a point.

Sheffield United-Middlesbrough. This confrontation can be dubbed as a duel between the Blades' veteran manager Neil Warnock and the rookie Gareth Southgate at Boro.

Warnock saw his side cash in only two points from six outings and Southgate has managed more than double of that tally with five points from six games.

On the only other occasion the sides met in the Premiership, both sides won their home encounter in 1992-93. Sheffield United won 2-0 (Carr, Deane) at Bramall Lane while Boro 2-0 prevailed at the Riverside Stadium (Falconer, Wright).

West Ham-Reading. While the Hammers have gone on with their abysmal form, newcomers Reading continued to surprise the critics with their performances, the latest being the home draw they earned against Manchester United.

While Reading will be involved in their first London derby of the term, the Hammers play in their second after they defeated Charlton on day one in their only win so far.

Watford-Fulham. Fulham felt they could have earned the share of the spoils against Chelsea after a dubious penalty led the way for the Blues' 2-0 win.

Watford, third from bottom, are the only side along with Sheffield United still in search of their first win.

This will be the first clash between the contestants in the top flight.