Having Manchester City and Arsenal clash this early in the season makes the blood flow, reintroduces the size and scale of the country’s best two teams and reminds the world to tune in on Sunday for the greatest league there is.

These teams have traded blows to finish first and second in the last couple of years and, ladies and gentlemen, it is very likely this is your one-two again. The intrigue lies in the order in which they land.

My hope is that Arsenal end up as champions and not because of City’s financial charges, more of which later, though no doubt sections of their overly-sensitive fanbase will leap to that conclusion.

When I tipped the Gunners at the start of the season, it may have partially been a Hail Mary of hope to stop one club dominating the Premier League. But I do think they are in with a shout.

I want Arsenal to lift the trophy because I want a changing of the guard and for everyone to see you can raise the bar, even competing against the best.

Under Mikel Arteta, they are becoming a more sophisticated football outfit, able to win by a variety of methodologies. Against Tottenham, they were savvy. They showed the steel often attributed to those who can, as opposed to those who can’t.

My biggest concern is that despite the rise of Kai Havertz, there is a reason the best footballing side in the world bought a centre-forward who can score 25+ goals. Arsenal don’t have that yet.

I don’t fear for the commercial future of the Premier League if City win a fifth consecutive crown but it is just a bit uninteresting. Change is good, not for it’s own sake but if earned on merit.

Should Arsenal prove the best team over nine months, it’s up to City to come again and everyone is dragged up a level.

I suspect most of the country whose teams don't lay realistic thoughts of winning the Premier League themselves, plus certain small-minded fans in the Tottenham camp, will want Arsenal to be champions.

Though Arteta is himself a fruit of the Guardiola tree and I didn’t agree with his utterings and splutterings about referees last year, he has energised his football club with the support, financial backing and time he’s received.

Of course, we can’t ignore City are currently embroiled in a hearing looking into 115 alleged financial breaches of Premier League rules.

While we are excited for this fixture, the greatest threat to English football is the ridiculousness of the misplaced thinking behind PSR (profit and sustainability rules).

If you have an owner losing a hundred million quid a year – which, by the way, isn’t all cash losses, but also a result of things like amortisation and inability to properly market value assets - yet they are prepared to put a bond up for a billion quid, it means their club is sustainable in my book.

It leaves the PSR argument as rather ludicrous in a free market, in an industry built by people investing in ambition.

Worse than that, we are having to listen to a ridiculous crowd because a few clubs have had bad owners at the lower end of the pyramid. I do understand the angst of fans at Reading, Leyton Orient and Bury but our rules and thinking need to be more sophisticated.

Let’s build a safety net for clubs, that go bust, such as league-provided insurance policies and find a mechanism for fairer distributions.

To introduce a financial regulator, a Government appointment, to economically asphyxiate English football whilst the rest of football around the world runs free and wild and does what it wants, is utter madness.

I do believe Manchester City have a very significant case to answer though I can’t really see what they did that differently to Chelsea under Roman Abramovich, apart from timing because rules have changed.

It worries me that the game is becoming more about which lawyers can be the most manipulative. It makes me think any future investment I had in sport would be to buy a legal business specializing in sports law - it would be more lucrative.

PSR was not intentionally introduced for the game to be run by accountants but that is disconcertingly becoming the case. It’s not what sport is about.

Let’s hope for one afternoon at least, the likes of Erling Haaland and Bukayo Saka can remind us what the game is. And if Arsenal win a fair contest, I’m sure myself and the rest of the country will be happy.

Textor can unlock Everton's potential 

John Textor’s biggest asset as prospective Everton owner, or Daniel Friedkin who perhaps bought some of the debt in discussions about buying Everton, is that they aren’t Farhad Moshiri.

You aren’t going to get much worse than what Everton have currently got. With due respect to Moshiri given he’s had more money in his life than I have, I think he is the Dean of Clown College turning a very decent football club with great heritage into an absolute car crash.

It’s nothing to do with how the football world is regulated, more to do with him being a very poor owner in understanding the business he’s in.

In the case of Textor, who currently holds a share of Crystal Palace, it was maybe unwise of him to talk about Sean Dyche’s coaching acumen and would have infuriated some at Goodison Park.

You can see he would be a very visible owner. He is being visible on the sidelines before he’s got his hands on the bloody thing!

Everton has a huge amount of potential and a new stadium coming. But it’s hard for supporters, like my friend George Downing who lent the club money and at one point was in to buy it, because of the current mess.

Relegation would be an absolute disaster. There is no comparison between their situation and Birmingham City, who are gaining momentum in League One after demotion.

You drop out of this Premier League, you can’t muck about on the chance you may come back. Everton’s whole future and the reason for building this stadium was not to take one step back – it was to take two steps forward.

My colleague Martin Keown was scratching his head about Everton’s defending at Villa last weekend. I’ll be less diplomatic, Michael Keane was absolutely useless. Allowing Ollie Watkins to win his header at the far post was due to desire, or lack of.

I will leave Evertonians with a positive thought however. I do think they’ve reached the bottom. With Dyche at the helm, they will stay up – and Moshiri will leave.

AJ and Dubois set for Wembley showdown 

I’ll be at Wembley with 96,000 others on Saturday night to see Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois fight for the world heavyweight title. 

One of them will touch greatness and British boxing fans in their pomp will hopefully create an atmosphere to impress visiting Saudi Arabian delegations.

Whilst the Saudis have put on wonderful bouts, there has been a little criticism of fight nights in Riyadh lacking a bit of soul at this early stage in their development.

There will be plenty of that at our national stadium for them to see and enjoy.