Everton - Starting close to home, the undoubted winners of the unexpected fast start award have to go to Everton in the Premier League. Moyes' men opened up their campaign but beating Manchester United 1-0, and haven't looked back. Their sole major slip up in the league was a loss away at West Brom, who have had an excellent start themselves.
Everton haven't just been winning either, they've played some of the best football seen this year, and been involved in one of the standout matches in their 2-2 draw at home to Newcastle. Their left flank of Baines and Pienaar have been superb, as has the giant Marouane Fellaini in playing just off the striker. With Jelavic back from injury and netting a brace at the weekend, you can see why HITC's Dan Coombs thinks the Toffees will be topping the table soon by the time they play Liverpool.
Atletico Madrid – In any other league you’d have to think Atletico Madrid would be title challengers, and anyone supposing the Spanish league is weak have to take into account Athletico’s 4-1 thrashing of Chelsea in the Super Cup. That match was one of four times that Athletico have hit four goals already this season, with the irrepressible Falcao hitting the back of the net for fun.
They have picked up five wins and a draw in the Spanish league so far this season, a run that still only puts them second thanks to Barcelona’s perfect start. But their results at the weekend, a 1-0 away victory without Falcao, shows they have the steel to go with the flair they have shown in other matches, maybe they’ll be able to keep up their fast start and provide a third team capable of challenging for the league title in Spain.
Napoli – As major teams stumble all over the place in Serie A, Napoli have been quietly racking up five wins and a draw from their first six games. Like Athletico they have a talismanic forward firing in plenty of goals, and like Athletico their fine run only puts them second.
However Napoli are level on points with Juventus at the top of the league, and may have the chance to go top when they face off against the leaders on the 20th October. Losing Lavezzi to PSG over the summer hasn’t stopped them starting well this season, and the Neapolitan side currently look the only realistic challengers to Juventus in the league.
Eintracht Frankfurt – In perhaps the most unexpectedly brilliant start of all, newly promoted Frankfurt sit second in the Bundesliga, having won five and drawn one of their first six games.
Again they are only second to Bayern’s perfect start, but they sit one place ahead of the defending champions Dortmund, who are the only team to take points off them this season. It would certainly be unforeseen if Frankfurt were able to hold on to a European place for the whole season, but they may have already given themselves enough momentum to be sure they don’t get dragged into a relegation fight.
image: © isirya
Nick Harris
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I'm Nick Harris, Spurs fan and sports writer. Alongside HITC, I'm the founder, editor, writer, and fan of footballspirals.com and can be found on Twitter - @nicksharris. When I'm not watching sport I'm usually drinking coffee and checking updates on my phone in an antisocial manner.
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