Manchester United will be away at Southampton tomorrow looking to build on the hard-earned win over Fulham last week, having lost their opening fixture to Everton in mid-August.
United were hard-hit with the injury to Wayne Rooney who suffered a gash in his thigh that will probably leave him out for a month.
However, in his home debut Robin van Persie showed that he can truly be an asset as he opened his United account with a superb strike against the Cottagers.
On the eve of this campaign, United boss Alex Ferguson vowed there would not be another occasion when his team gets beaten to the title by goal difference. Hence, his focus on attack and the shrewd signing of Van Persie.
Last week, Jamaica sprint king Usain Bolt received a big round of applause from the fans at Old Trafford where he paraded his Olympic gold medals.
Prior to the match, Bolt visited the dressing rooms and gave each player a handshake.
The last time United and Southampton met in the Premier League at the Saints’ den was on May 2005 with the visitors holding the upperhand in a 2-1 win.
There were 12 other occasions when these two teams met in the Premiership down south. United won six to Southampton’s five and one fixture resulted in a 2-2 draw.
One match that stood out was the 6-3 triumph by the Saints in 1996.
Southampton, who lost to Man. City and Wigan, are one of two sides still without a point after two matches, the others being Aston Villa. Yet, these are still early days.
Chelsea have already played this programme’s fixture (at home to Reading) on August 22. The Blues have maximum points from three outings. The other 100 per cent sides are Everton and Swansea.
Everton are showing they could really challenge for the honours this year as they went berserk from the word go and after beating United they went on to down Aston Villa.
Everton play at West Brom this afternoon with boss David Moyes, now in his 10th year in charge, hoping that this is the right time for his players to start rubbing shoulders with the elite of the division.
West Brom are also unbeaten after a win and a draw. They will have home comfort again after beating Everton’s Merseyside rivals Liverpool in their first fixture.
On Sunday, Manchester City had to sweat for a 2-2 draw at Liverpool to remain undefeated.
The champions play QPR at the Etihad Stadium this evening with the City faithful still having a clear picture in mind of how this same fixture developed last season when they clinched the title in stoppage time.
Liverpool stay at Anfield this weekend to play hosts to Arsenal.
The Reds are still licking their wounds after handing City a gift of a goal when they seemed on their way to chalk up their first win.
Yet, Brendan Rodgers remarked that despite that horrible error Liverpool showed great improvement from their first match.
Arsenal are also chasing their first win after two similar 0-0 draws against Sunderland and Stoke.
Arsene Wenger gave the fans some hope as he explained how the club had managed to rebuild after the transfer of Thierry Henry to Barcelona in 2007. He added that he would go through the same channels after he let Van Persie and Alex Song go this summer.
Tottenham are also looking to register their first three-pointer as they play Norwich at White Hart Lane today.
Fixtures and forecast
Premier League
Man. City-Qpr (18:30) 1
Swansea-Sunderland 1
Tottenham-Norwich1
West Brom-Everton 2
West Ham-Fulham 13:45 X
Wigan-Stoke City1
Tomorrow:
Liverpool-Arsenal (14:30) 1
Newcastle-Aston Villa (17:00) 1
Southampton-Man. Utd (17:00) 2
The Championship
Barnsley-Bristol City X
Birmingham-Peterborough1
Burnley-Brighton X
Crystal Palace-Sheffield Wed. X
Derby County-Watford 1
Hull City-Bolton X
Ipswich-Huddersfield 1
Leeds United-Blackburn 1
Leicester-Blackpool (18:20)1
Millwall-M’Boro (13:45) 1
N. Forest-Charlton 1
Tomorrow:
Cardiff-Wolves (15:00) 1
League One
Bury-Notts County X
Crawley-Leyton Orient 1
Crewe-Coventry City X
Hartlepool-Scunthorpe 1
Mk Dons-Carlisle 1
Portsmouth-Oldham X
Sheffield Utd-Bournemouth 1
Stevenage-Shrewsbury 1
Tranmere-Colchester 1
Walsall-Brentford X
Yeovil Town-Doncaster X
Tomorrow:
Preston-Swindon (16:00) X
League Two
Afc Wimbledon-Dagenham 1
Bristol Rovers-Morecambe 1
Cheltenham-Accrington 1
Exeter-Burton Albion 1
Fleetwood-Aldershot 1
Gillingham-Chesterfield 1
Plymouth-Northampton X
Port Vale-Torquay X
Rochdale-Barnet 1
Rotherham-Bradford City X
Southend-Wycombe X
York-Oxford 2
Scottish Premier League
Aberdeen-St Mirren 1
Celtic-Hibernian 1
Ross County-Kilmarnock 1
St Johnstone-Dundee United 2
Tomorrow:
Hearts-Dundee (16:00) 1
Motherwell-Inverness (16:00) 1
Division One
Airdrie-Cowdenbeath 1
Dunfermline-Raith 1
Morton-Dumbarton 1
Partick-Hamilton 1
Tomorrow:
Falkirk-Livingston (16:00) 1
Division Two
Brechin City-Alloa X
East Fife-Albion 1
Q’Of The South-Arbroath 1
Stenhousemuir-Forfar 1
Stranraer-Ayr United 2
Division Three
Berwick-East Stirling X
Clyde-Annan Athletic X
Peterhead-Montrose 1
Stirling-Queen’S Parkx
Tomorrow:
Rangers-Elgin (17:30) 1
Hot Four: Manchester City, Tottenham, Birmingham, Crawley.