Winning Mentality Rolls On

After a stuttering opening weekend of the Premier League, the English domestic campaign is finally off and running and already a familiar trend has emerged across the divisions. Away from the top-flight two proverbial sleeping giants on the south coast are leading the way in the Championship and are proving how important the psychological aspect of the beautiful game really is.

Southampton and Brighton were the top two teams in League One last season and it's easy to see why. Both were metronomically consistent when it mattered. In Southampton's case it took the introduction of Nigel Adkins to arrest their early season slump and give their campaign the shot in the arm that ultimately ended in promotion. Brighton, under the guidance of Gus Poyet went from divisional relegation candidates to league champions in the space of 12 months. Even south coast rivals Bournemouth surprised many by making the League One play-offs and giving themselves a shot at back-to-back promotions

Now, with three wins from three, supporters of both Southampton and Brighton are getting used to looking up. Victories havn't been by the odd goal either: most recently Saints won 5-2 at Ipswich while the Seagulls ran out 3-1 winners at Cardiff City. Hardly results easily predicted by the bookmakers. With both sides having made very few changes to the playing staff, is the winning mentality instilled into these promotion-winning squads the key ingredient in ensuring success? The evidence certainly seems to point that way. As progressively more teams are starting to prove at the highest level, you can often win a game in your mind before winning it on the pitch.

Most famously of course the efforts of Norwich City in achieving successive promotions has seen them once again rubbing shoulders with the elite. What price both Southampton and Brighton repeating the Canaries' success...?

The Fabregas/Nasri Conundrum

It's that time of year again. Football fans up and down the country are tinkering with their final 'Fantasy Football' line-ups, journalists and pundits are churning out prediction tables and broadcasters play endless season preview advertisments as we trudge ever nearer to the big kick-off.

If there is one thing that has disappointed me over the last few months, it is the distint lack of buzz around any serious transfer activity. With the rumour mills running on full power it seems as if the transfers of even players like Sergio Aguero to Manchester City seem to have passed by with the nonchalance of a harbour clerk ticking off bags of grain as they are unloaded from a ship.

The one transfer story that has dragged on like a poorly written soap is the imminent departure of Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas to his boyhood heroes and reigning European champions, Barcelona. The Catalan giants have flirted with Fabregas for a number of seasons now and I, for one, feel that his departure will help rather than hinder Arsene Wenger.

Talismanic, creative and inspirational club captain he may be, but it is sheer folly to keep Fabregas at a club where he no longer wishes to stay. With Samir Nasri due to depart north to join the blue half of Manchester, the speculatation over both players' futures will surely clear the air of frustration at the Emirates and allow Wenger to invest the money in areas where the Gunners are seriously lacking.