Now that the international friendly nonsense is out of the way we can get back to the considerably more exciting day-to-day business of Premiership football.

And although we are less than a third of the way into the season, this is one title race that could be shaping up to be an absolute cracker.

At the time of writing, only six points separate the top eight teams, which is as close as I can ever remember it being at this stage of the season.

But I think we all know it isn’t going to stay that way for long.

At some point soon, possibly as early as Christmas, the situation will settle down and we will have a much clearer indication of who might be staying the course and who is going to do a Blackpool and slump from a Champions League place to relegation.

To be fair, I don’t think there is much chance any of the current top eight will slump that far, but if you had to try and pinpoint which of them will fall off the pace first, you would have to go with Southampton, followed by Everton.

And that’s not because those two teams don’t deserve to be where they are right now. Absolutely not. But I fear both of them don’t have the necessary strength in depth to maintain their current pace for an entire season.

An injury here and there, and the wins that have propelled them up the table will turn into draws, and the draws into defeats. It doesn’t take much to destroy your momentum in England’s top flight.

With those two out of the race, that would mean we are left with the usual four title suspects plus ‘relatively new kids on the block’ Tottenham Hotspur and ‘sleeping giants slowly waking up’ Liverpool.

And that is where the season gets exciting, because I believe all six have a decent shout of lifting the trophy.

Sure, one or two of them will go on good runs and one or two of them will have dodgy spells, but I would suggest that, on their day, any one of those six are capable of beating the other five.

The chances are it is these direct encounters that will end up deciding the destination of the trophy. If you won all your games against the lower teams and lost those against your main competitors you could, theoretically at least, still win the title.

But the chances of that happening are highly remote at the best of times, and especially so in such a wide open contest, which means it is the big games that are going to settle this particular race.

With six, if not eight teams fighting it out at the top, that means we have got a season packed with crucial games ahead of us. Bring it on.

And yes, I still think Chelsea will ultimately triumph.

Cristiano books his place

So what did these international fixtures really tell us?

In England’s case not very much, other than the fact that the squad has little strength in depth and can’t score unless something more than pride is at stake.

However, the real action last week took place in the World Cup play-offs where France pulled off a fabulous comeback to edge out Ukraine and Portugal saw off a spirited fightback from Sweden to book their ticket to Brazil.

At 2-0 down, France looked all but out of the contest, but put in precisely the sort of performance that was needed at exactly the right time. Paris went mad, as you would expect, and I am sure there were a few sore heads come Wednesday morning.

I still think Chelsea will ultimately triumph

But it was in that other key game that the drama really hit fever pitch. It was a clash billed by many, myself included, as the battle between Ibrahimovich and Ronaldo.

Some suggested there was more to both teams than those two players, but the fact that all six goals over the two legs were scored by them tends to suggest otherwise.

Ronaldo came out on top, hitting the back of the net four times, and it is the Real Madrid star that now has the opportunity to light up South America next summer. And, if he is on that sort of form, there is every chance he will do just that.

Ibrahimovich, meanwhile, will have to watch things from afar, which is a crying shame for the world of football.

Qatar gets intimate

Although we still don’t know whether the 2012 Qatar World Cup will be played in summer or winter there is one thing we do know for certain – at least some of it will be played inside a giant vagina.

Last week the organisers proudly unveiled plans for the new, 45,000-seater, climate-controlled, Al Wakrah sports stadium that will be built 12 miles south of Doha.

The architects apparently tried to model it on the ancient dhow boat. A vessel traditionally used for pearl fishing in the region.

Unfortunately, the finished designs look considerably less like a boat and considerably more like a lady’s private parts.

The designs have been causing all sorts of mirth and amusement on social media last week. And understandably so.

Is it possible that this team of architects, and I assume they are among the world’s finest, actually spent months planning this and not one of them, at any stage of the process, sat bolt upright, slapped his forehead and cried: “Don’t look now guys, but I think we might have designed the world’s largest lady bits…”

Having said that, I hope the outcry and criticism doesn’t persuade them to change their design plans for the stadium.

There is something about it that I find strangely welcoming…

Striking the right balance

Lots of different elements go into making a good striker – pace, strength, skill, vision and opportunism are among the most vital.

But there is one more ingredient in this particular recipe that simply can’t be left out – confidence.

Take away a striker’s self-belief and, no matter how much skill he may possess, the player that takes to the pitch will be a shadow of his potential self.

On the other hand, having confidence by the bucketload is not enough if the other parts of the equation are missing.

Which brings me rather neatly to Nicklas Bendtner.

Last week, the Arsenal and Denmark striker has been talking about his next career move. Essentially, he is frustrated at warming the Arsenal bench and is planning to depart sooner rather than later.

Most strikers in that position would be thinking of moving to a smaller club where you are likely to get more game time and an opportunity to prove yourself.

Not Bendtner. Nope. He wants his next move to be either Real Madrid or Barcelona.

Yes, you read that right. The player who comes on the pitch and does more for his opponents than his own team actually wants to leave Arsenal and move to one of the Spanish superpowers.

I’m not saying it is impossible, because stranger things have happened. But I would suggest he may be confusing reality with a cartoon strip he once read.

The harsh truth is that Bendtner isn’t actually very good. There may have been one or two glimpses of promise in his younger years – you know, back when he was describing himself as the best player in the world – but that promise faded away to be replaced by nothing but attitude and questionable hair.

Nothing he has done in the past five or six years, either at Arsenal or on one of his numerous loans, has suggested he would even be allowed to watch Barcelona, let alone play for them.

As I said, confidence is vital for a good striker. But there is a limit, a point where having that self-belief may actually be detrimental to the overall package.

I can’t help but feel that if Bendtner had been a little bit more humble and realised he needed to work hard at becoming a good player, he might actually have made it.

At 25, and with several seasons of failure behind him, the queue to sign him when he leaves the Emirates is going to be exceptionally short and is more likely to include teams from the Championship than Spain…

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com
Twitter: @maltablade