I was certainly a happy man after watching my West Ham win their opening game of the season against Aston Villa at home last weekend.Most encouraging was the way we played and it’s always important to make a good start to the Premier League season, especially as one of the newly promoted teams.I thought our boss Sam Allardyce made the right decisions at the right times, with our substitutions having the sort of impact from the bench that you would hope for.Our first game back in the top-flight was always going to a nervy one and hopefully we can build on those three points when we take on Swansea at Liberty Stadium today.Swansea made a storming to the season with a 5-0 thrashing of big spenders QPR, who looked very average indeed on the opening day of the season.Hopefully the Hammers can bring the Swans back down to earth!I was pleased to see our former assistant coach Steve Clarke make a winning start as manager of West Bromwich Albion, who looked very impressive in their 3-0 win over Liverpool at the Hawthorns.Of course, Clarke was assistant coach at the Reds last term so the victory would have been extra special for the former Chelsea defender.Defending champions Manchester City had to show true grit to come from behind to beat Premier League new-boys Southampton. Mancini’s men had to dig deep and outlined just why they once again be the team to beat this season.As for this season’s title challengers, I think the Manchester club and Chelsea will have a right old battle to land the coveted trophy. Chelsea have won their opening two matches, against Wigan and Reading, and look to a unearthed a real talent in attacking midfielder Eden Hazard who has made a phenomenal start to the season. The boy Hazard has laready set the house on fire and you can already see the talent he possesses.City have the most balanced team, however, and probably have the strongest squad out of the three teams. I’m a big admirer of City’s captain Vincent Kompany as he’s a real organiser and keeps his team-mates on their toes.I was impressed with Everton in their win over United. They were all over them for 69 minutes, and then once they got the goal through Mathieu Flamini they invited United to break them down and they couldn’t do it.The last 20 minutes Everton sat back a bit too much, though, which baffled me because you’re inviting the equaliser. For me, I’d like to see a team go for the kill and score a second to try and finish the game.La Liga started last weekend and, as usual, it will again come down to Barcelona and Real Madrid as to who wins the title.Barca and Madrid have the most money and so attract the best players. That’s how football works.Barca edged out Madrid in Thursday’s Super Cup, winning 3-2, but still have work to do next week on the return leg.Victor Valdes let in a blunder but then again you can’t blame him because he has saved them a lot in his career and is allowed to make a mistake every now and then.It’s like Petr Cech at Chelsea; he has saved the club countless times so he is allowed to make an error once in a while.