TWIF 2.01: Shelvey stuns, Sturridge scores, Champions League returns

Welcome to a second season of This Week In Football.

A night to remember for Shelvey:
Monday night's game between Swansea City and Liverpool was a timely reminder that the Barclays Premier League can still provide us with exciting games, after what has been a tough start to the season from a neutral fan's perspective. One player who certainly won't forget it is Jonjo Shelvey. Before the game he spoke about facing his former club and the challenges that brings, but few would have thought that the task for Shelvey would be to remember for which team he was playing. To provide a goal and an assist for one team and two assists for another is enough to confuse even the greatest of players. To be fair, apart from the mistakes, Shelvey had a good night. He must have heard that Swansea were trying to sign him!

Goals galore for Sturridge:
Another topic from Monday Night Football was the form of Daniel Sturridge, who scored in his fourth successive Premier League game for Liverpool with a typical poacher's goal. When Luis Suarez was handed his ten-game suspension, I had doubts as to whether Sturridge could step up and be the talisman that Liverpool needed, but he's doing it, and Brendan Rodgers will have a dilemma once Suarez comes back over who to select, or how to accomodate both of them. It's just a shame that he didn't do it for England last week. Mind you, it's far more important to be fit for club commitments these days. Sigh.

Champions League returns:
The UEFA Champions League is back this week, and the group stage has brought a mixed bag for the Premier League's representatives. It will be interesting to see how, if at all, Sunday's upcoming Manchester derby affects the two sides' team selections this week. United (v Bayer Leverkusen) and City (at Viktoria Plzen) both have winnable games, so I expect a few changes from each side. Maybe it's finally an opportunity for Shinji Kagawa to remind David Moyes of his abilities, following his recent omissions from the side. Chelsea should find Wednesday night's game against FC Basel, indeed their whole group, fairly straightforward, but after last year, they can't afford to take it lightly. At the time of the draw, I worried for Arsenal that they could fail to qualify from the group, but right now confidence couldn't be higher. A win in Marseille sets them up perfectly, but with Borussia Dortmund and Napoli - whose game on Wednesday I'll be watching - also awaiting, it may be essential that the Gunners hit the ground running.

Barclays Premier League predictions

On the eve of a new season, I usually predict who will win the Barclays Premier League, and who I think will be relegated, but this season I thought I would have a go at predicting the whole table. I may have just made myself look very silly,and I may have just upset more readers than I please, but hopefully I'll get more right than wrong. Be sure to check back here next May.

I spent almost the entire summer thinking Manchester City would retain their crown, but that was until their neighbours from Old Trafford swooped to sign Arsenal's Robin van Persie. He and Wayne Rooney represents a formidable strike partnership that could rival any that this great league has ever seen.

At the bottom, I think Swansea would have struggled anyway to match the exploits of last season, and that's before they lost Gylfi Sigurdsson, Joe Allen, possibly Scott Sinclair, and of course Brendan Rodgers, who left the Liberty Stadium to take charge at Liverpool. As for Southampton and Reading, I'm just not sure they have got strong enough squads, simple as that.

Let me know what you think.

1. Manchester United
2. Manchester City
3. Chelsea
4. Arsenal
5. Tottenham Hotspur
6. Liverpool
7. Everton
8. Newcastle United
9. Fulham
10. Aston Villa
11. Sunderland
12. West Bromwich Albion
13. Queens Park Rangers
14. West Ham United
15. Wigan Athletic
16. Norwich City
17. Stoke City
18. Swansea City
19. Southampton
20. Reading