Toronto Mayor Rob Ford surely understands the long-held sentiment; a week is a long time in politics. If the compelling storylines emerging from the opening week of the BPL season are any indication then we are certainly in for another peach of a season in Englands top tier. Here are my highlights from a week that was. A WINDOW TURNS INTO A REVOLVING DOOR - Going into the transfer window Arsene Wenger let everyone know the red half of London was in for some serious spending this summer. Nearly two months in were still waiting. Those who barked Anglo Saxon-riddled expletives at the economics graduate following a feeble effort in Arsenals opener were left scratching their heads after the name Johan Cabaye was added to the ever-growing list of failed bids. As an encore yesterday, the club announced ‘No Mas in their pursuit of Liverpools Luis Suarez with all signs their immediate attention was now on signing ex-Gunner Mathieu Flamini. Let go by Milan at the end of last season Flamini walked out on Arsenal at the end of the 2007-08 season. I guess at this rate RVP will be back in an Arsenal shirt circa summer 2018. AWAY THE FANS - On the eve of the season Premier League CEO Richard Scudamore stated the BPLs desire to increase the attendance of travelling supporters. The campaign got off to an ideal start with the league announcing that over opening weekend eight of 10 visiting clubs completely sold out their ticket allocations. The affection from the terraces must be rubbing off on the pitch. Of those 10 matches fully half of them resulted in victory for the visitors. The most improbable had the 3,000 strong Aston Villa support suffer a collective case of 2012-13 campaign amnesia come the final whistle at the Emirates. DEJA VU? - When the blue half of Manchester claimed the most unlikely of BPL crowns on the final day of the season they started their 2011-12 campaign with a Monday night home fixture. Swansea was the opponent that day in a match that saw City run out as very convincing 4-0 winners. Fast forward to Manchester Citys 2013-14 opener and the destruction of Newcastle by a similar score Monday night. Adding further intrigue, David Silva and Sergio Aguero featured on the score sheet against Newcastle as they both did against Swansea on opening day 2011. GLT 1: CHELSEA 0 - It was Frank Lampards goal that wasnt versus Germany at the 2010 World Cup which swung the FIFA debate on goal line technology. With GLT making its introduction in the BPL this season how ironic it was that on opening weekend Hawkeye was put into full effect following a corner from the Chelsea midfielder. Hulls Allan McGregor did just enough to prevent the ball from fully going over the line after Lampards corner was headed goal-bound by Branislav Ivanovic. If it had been a goal, referee Jon Moss would have been alerted within a second by a buzzer triggering on his watch. I wonder if Wenger has a similar watch for when Arsenal finally manage to land a player during the transfer window. GNASHER LUIS HEARTS LIVERPOOL - Having made the mandatory apology to his teammates on the eve of Liverpool opening their campaign, how comforting it must have been for some of the Kop faithful to bump into Suarez as he emerged from a car outside Anfield ahead of kick off against Stoke last Saturday. Agitating for a move all summer long only a complete cynic would suggest Suarez decided to take his daughter with him to prevent opportunity for any of the Liverpool fans to vent their true feelings on their star striker. Suarez who is halfway through a 10-match ban for biting Ivanovic towards the tail end of last season will only be available to play for Liverpool or [insert Champions League club here] at the end of September. No confirmation if Suarez bit a team mate in training Thursday after news leaked out Arsenal had finally abandoned their £40,000,001 pursuit of the man with the most infamous teeth in all of world football. HARDLY A “PITCHURE BOOK” STORY - Confined to the bench as Manchester United took to the Swansea pitch, “Want-away Wayne” cut a pitiful self as he watched the champions take the 2-0 lead. Even though the £250,000-a-week striker featured in both of Uniteds later goals Rooneys mood didnt improve after he was introduced just after the hour mark. Wayne opted not to join in the goal celebrations, preferring a shoulder shrugging trudge back to the halfway line instead of joining in with his team mates as they performed a touch line love in with David Moyes after RVP had claimed his second goal of the day. Rooney also stayed well away from the team celebration after Danny Welbeck scored Uniteds fourth. No prizes for guessing what action shots from the Liberty Stadium made the back pages of the tabloids last Sunday. HOME BUT NOT ALONE - Such was the “Jose Effect” Sunday as this most venerable part of West London awoke much earlier than usual. The ground filled up a good hour ahead of kick off as no one in the 41,000 capacity crowd wanted to miss out on the Happy Ones return to the Stamford Bridge bench. Even Roman Abramovich couldnt resist the Mourinho lure as the owner paid a pre-match visit to the Chelsea dressing room. Abramovich even featured in the match day programme, a first as the club celebrate a decade of Roman Rule. It was Mourinho, though, who held the fans breathless as they waited for him to emerge from the tunnel. The teenage-type adulation which followed, as he took his place on the bench, was in marked contrast to the wholly divisive Stamford Bridge scenes from last season. START AS YOU MEAN TO GO ON THEN - The BPLs very own walking and talking stick of dynamite just cant help himself. One game in and Ian Holloway is already on an FA misconduct charge following incendiary words directed at the referee after his Crystal Palace opened their campaign with defeat at home to Spurs. Holloway was back to his emotional self in mid-week with ill-judged comments about Chelsea not conceding a late penalty against Aston Villa - Holloway outwardly questioning if the refs had it on for the less glamorous sides. The Crystal Palace manager freely admits hes not at his best when he doesnt get what he wants, advising the media if they didnt believe him then all they had to do was ask his Mum. VALUE FOR MONEY – The last word has to go to the man who was so instrumental in ensuring Sir Alex Ferguson received the perfect retirement gift. Robin Van Persies contribution last season made a complete mockery of the widely-held adage players need a season or two to bed in and get used to their new surroundings. Scoring in his Old Trafford debut, the Dutchman potted goals from near and far all season long and with them secured a 13th BPL title for Ferguson. After scoring in Fergies final game in charge, last seasons top scorer needed all of 33 minutes to get off the mark this season. If Gareth Bale is worth upwards of €100m to Real Madrid what mathematical model do you use to calculate Robin Van Persies value to Manchester United? Anyone got Einsteins phone number. TSN & TEAM Radio is your BPL home this season. Double Header Saturday Kicks Off with Everton vs. West Bromwich Albion at 10am et/7:00am pt followed by Aston Villa vs Liverpool at 12:30pm et/9:30am pt. You can reach and follow Noel Butler at: Noel.Butler@BellMedia.ca @TheSoccerNoel on Twitter Se... Romo Giants Jersey . Already owning gold from competition in Vancouver in 2010, Loch posted a combined four-run time of 3:27.526. That included a track-record third run of 51. . Parker had 26 points and eight assists and San Antonio beat Toronto 112-99 Monday night. "We won that game because of Tony Parkers aggressiveness," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "His juice; his aggression all night long. [url=http://www.baseballsfgiantsshop.com/customized/]http://www.baseballsfgiants... . - Blake Griffin had 30 points and 12 rebounds, J. [url=http://www.baseballsfgiantsshop.com/authentic-norichika-aoki-giants-jersey/... Aoki Jersey . Ouellette, from Montreal, already has three Olympic gold medals since joining the team in 1999. Jak... Peavy Jersey . -- Aaron Murray threw for 408 yards and three touchdowns, ran for another score, and led No.CORTINA DAMPEZZO, Italy -- Overall World Cup leader Maria Hoefl-Riesch won a shortened downhill Friday and established herself as the favourite to take away two of Lindsey Vonns titles. Hoefl-Riesch took full command of the downhill standings that the injured Vonn dominated for the past six years and improved her status as the favourite for the womens downhill at the Sochi Olympics on Feb. 12 -- the race Vonn won at the 2010 Vancouver Games. "The downhill globe is a big goal for me," Hoefl-Riesch said. "The last years it was always impossible because Lindsey was so strong. I already was skiing strong in the last years but there was never a chance, because I was not consistent enough on every single track like Lindsey. "And of course I would love to win the Olympic downhill," Hoefl-Riesch said. "Thats the biggest race in skiing." Julia Roth of Waterloo, Ont., was 44th. Larisa Yurkiw of Owen Sound, Ont., did not start the first run. With her parents and husband in attendance, Hoefl-Riesch won in 1 minute, 17.84 seconds on the Olympia delle Tofane course for the 27th World Cup victory of her career. "I knew that I had to attack a lot with a shortened course and that it would be very tight," Hoefl-Riesch said. "It was really flat light and tricky in a few turns where some girls had big problems. But not me." Hoefl-Riesch said that she tweaked her left knee while landing a jump and that she felt some pain but was not overly concerned. Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein finished second, 0.31 seconds behind, and Nicole Schmidhofer of Austria was third with the No. 39 bib, 0.75 behind. Lara Gut of Switzerland was fourth and Stacey Cook of the United States was fifth as the pair missed out on the podium by 0.01 and 0.03 seconds, respectively. It was the best result this season for Cook, who finished second in two downhills in Lake Louise, Alberta, last season. The victory gave Hoefl-Riesch an 85-point lead over Weirather in the downhill standings after six of eight races, with wins worth 100 points each. In the overall standings, Hoefl-Riesch leads Weirather by 158 points. Hoefl-Rieschs other two wins this season also came in downhill, in Lake Louise. She also has podium results in slalom, super-combined and super-G and credits part of her all-around success to Hermann Maiers former physical trainer, Heinrich Bergmueller, who she began working with in the off-season. "I was also training hard the summers before but its a new way with a new coach and some things are different," she said. "I feel much stronger this year and with my recovery for all disciplines.&" Vonn ended her season recently to tend to her right knee, which she first injured in a horrific crash at last years world championships in Schladming, Austria.dddddddddddd Hoefl-Riesch is friendly with Vonn but she wasnt about to take anything away from her own success just because her rival is out now. "Thats skiing," said Hoefl-Riesch, who had four serious injuries in 2005. "I was not at the Olympic Games in 2006 and no one was asking the winner of the medals there if they miss me. So a medal is a medal and a title is a title, no matter who is competing and who is not." Vonn used to spend Christmas at Hoefl-Rieschs home in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and they remain in contact. "We were just writing a little on WhatsApp a little bit," Hoefl-Riesch said. "I think shes doing OK and I hope that we can talk on the phone before I go to Sochi." Due to overnight snow and difficulty preparing the course, the start was delayed for half an hour and the course was shortened slightly -- chopping off about 20 seconds of racing. With softer snow and flat light, it was a sharp change in conditions from Wednesdays only training run, which was held under bright sunshine. Conditions improved for later starters as a tailwind moved in. The wind helped Schmidhofer, whose only other podium finish also came in Cortina, having finished second in a super-G last year. "I was hoping for a tailwind," Schmidhofer said, before she addressed her chances of being selected for Sochi. "I hope the coaches look at my result." The revised start put skiers directly into the courses best-known section, the Tofane schuss -- a long straightaway between two high rock outcroppings. "I generally do OK when there are straight shots out of the gate like that," Cook said. "So that was a little confidence booster to kick out of the gate, get on my skis and not have to do too much and then get into it. And then I just tried to not ski a perfect line but ski perfect body position and really attacking. And it seems to have been fast." Elisabeth Goergl, the Austrian who won a super-G on Thursday, lost control after hitting a gate and slammed into the safety padding at full speed. But she got right back up, skied down and said she was not injured. Another downhill is scheduled for Saturday, followed by a second super-G on Sunday to round out a series of four races in four days. Two of the races were originally scheduled for last weekend in Cortina but were wiped out due to heavy snowfall. The other two were moved from Garmisch due to a lack of snow in the German resort. cheap jerseys cheap jerseys cheap nfl jerseys Ray Ban Outlet Michael Kors Outlet Michael Kors Sale Cheap Michael Kors ' ' '