We're four to five games into the Premier League season and what have we found so far? Well, according to Jose Mourinho the title race is wide open. That may be true, but what's apparent already is that out of the Big Four. it's Arsenal and Liverpool that are leading the way, not Manchester United and Chelsea.

I don’t know about you but when I heard that Arsenal were 1-0 down to Fulham with six minutes to go on the opening day of the season, I feared the worst. No Thierry Henry, no ruthless front man to put the ball in the net. The writing was on the wall until Robin van Persie and Aleksandr Hleb cropped up with a couple of winners. And from that point onwards they’ve barely looked back. The only points they’ve dropped so far have been against Blackburn.

Liverpool have been even more convincing. Like Arsenal, they have only dropped two points, and they were against Chelsea. Yet what makes Liverpool a real eye-opener this season is the way Rafa Benitez has managed to bring in new players and get them playing to their strengths. No longer are they relying on wing play and crosses into the box. Now a more direct approach is the order of the day. Players like Fernando Torres and Andriy Voronin are being given the ball and told to do what they do best, take on defenders and shoot on sight.

'Sir Alex Ferguson's team appear to lack the strength in depth they once had'


It's a method that has paid dividends so far, beating Aston Villa 2-1 away (something that Chelsea failed to do on Sunday) and most notably demolishing Derby County 6-0. OK, so Derby aren’t exactly the toughest opponents but they'll doubtless trip someone up before the season's over.

The absence of Henry seems to have had a strange effect on Arsenal. Instead of contemplating a future without a world-class striker, the players now look relieved to have thrown off the shackles of being just another one of Henry's support team. Individuals are now shining in their own right. A look at Arsenal's score sheets from the first three weeks of the season backs this theory up. Van Persie, Emmanuel Adebayor, Tomas Rosicky, Cesc Fabregas and Hleb show that goals are now coming from a variety of sources, rather than the one that now plays for Barcelona.

It's remarkably similar to the way Manchester United used to play. If one player was off form, someone else in the team could step in to provide the goals. But without a main striker of note until last weekend, United suddenly found that the supply chain had broken down. Think of Sir Alex Ferguson's teams in the recent past and practically anyone could have scored. Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Roy Keane, David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Andy Cole, Teddy Sheringham, Dwight Yorke - even defenders like John O'Shea and Rio Ferdinand might have chipped in with the odd one here or there. But this season has been a different story.

After United's Carling Cup Final victory last season, they went on to score 23 goals in 12 games but in the five they've played since August 12, they've managed just three.

Yes, I know it's early days and that anything can happen between now and next May. But it has to be said that Ferguson's team appear to lack the strength in depth they once had. Never more has this been apparent since Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney took their leave of absence. But what of Carlos Tevez? Wasn't he the one who was going to give United some flair and goals? Sadly, I think he's the victim of United's new playing style - too much passing and too little in the way of impulsive shooting from anywhere on the pitch.

All of which leaves Chelsea. Their only defeat of the season so far was a tad confusing, given that Aston Villa's 2-0 win wasn't a fair reflection of which was  the superior team. Martin O'Neill's men certainly defended well, but it was more a case of Jose Mourinho's team having a 'bad day at the office'. Yet even there it's worth checking out Chelsea's 'goals scored' column for their first five games - three, two, one, one, zero.

Villa have only lost once in their first four games and that was to Liverpool, so maybe Chelsea's title challenge isn't the stuff of major catastrophe after all. My guess it was just a blip, but their next game against Blackburn should tell us more.

On reflection, then, the race for the title has started with no team taking maximum points from their first four games. No one team has laid down the gauntlet to the rest of the league. So is this Liverpool's best chance to finally get their name on the trophy? Watch this space.

Can Liverpool go all the way this season? Post a comment below or submit an article to Sportingo.