Premier League champions Manchester United are not having an easy time of things under new manager David Moyes, with their midweek home defeat by Moyes’s former team, Everton, leaving them 12 points behind leaders Arsenal.

It’s difficult at times when you’ve got a new person going in, especially at a big club like Manchester United. Things aren’t going exactly how they would like it at the present time, but that’s the way football goes.

It doesn’t mean he’s a bad manager; it’s just about getting people to do what is necessary and putting people in the right places.

Moyes may just need to sit down and talk to the “old fox” (Alex Ferguson) who seemed to have it down to a science, rotating his players and getting them to play. He’s always there at the home matches and, as long as he’s alive, he’s going to be there because he is a football fanatic and loves the game.

It’s going to be tough for them to defend their title at this stage of the season, but if anybody can do it it would be them. They have won so many league championships and other titles before and know what it takes to win. It just means the players getting together and working their butts off for the manager.

I’ll put my head on the block and say that I think there will be new champions come May. When you look at the points they have, 22 to Arsenal’s 34, at the present time it is going to be difficult to make up that gap. And it could be even more difficult for them against Newcastle today, with Wayne Rooney suspended and Robin van Persie out injured.

I think Arsenal’s biggest threat to the title will come from Chelsea and the four points between them is not that much when a team like Chelsea are breathing down your neck. Manchester City are going to be in with a shout, too, the way things are shaping up.

The fight for survival is interesting, too, with my team West Ham winning comfortably at home against Fulham, which cost their manager, Martin Jol, his job, but then lost on Tuesday night to Crystal Palace, which leaves us fourth from bottom and just three points ahead of Fulham and Palace. Anybody who can put some wins together will be OK and that’s what you have to do: be consistent, even when you are near the bottom. Tony Pulis, the new Palace manager, did well in his previous job at Stoke and I don’t see him doing any different at Selhurst Park. He’s a fighter and that’s what you need to be to get out of trouble in the bottom half of the table.

The draw was made yesterday for next year’s World Cup in Brazil and England find themselves in a tough group with Italy, Uruguay and Costa Rica in what we could call the “group of death”. It’s a tough group and I know the Italians are going to be tough. You can’t rule Uruguay out, definitely not, especially with Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani, two world-class strikers who England are going to have to play special attention to.

The United States are also in a very tough group with Germany, Ghana and Portugal. But one thing about the Americans, they know how to fight. They could surprise some people, football is a funny game. By right, it should be Germany and Portugal, but you can’t count out Ghana out; they can play a little bit too. The African countries have come a long, long way since Roger Milla put on a display in the 1990 World Cup.

Nigeria should get through in their group with Argentina and you know what they are capable of doing; it’s just a matter of who turns up to play. And Spain, the holders, don’t have it easy. They are in a tough group with Holland and Chile.

France, from what I saw on the television, probably have the easiest group of everybody, with Switzerland, Ecuador and Honduras, All in all, it should be an interesting World Cup. I’m sure, for some teams, getting there will almost be like winning it.