TWO weeks in and the Premiership is off to a belter - plenty of surprises, controversy, cracking goals and - let's face it, some thoroughly enjoyable blunders. It might not always be quality football but that only makes for more entertainment.

Arsenal's Jans Lehmann has come in for a fair amount of stick, and rightly so, particularly when you consider the amounts of money professional footballers earn. His forwards saved his blushes in the first game of the season - netting twice against Fulham after the German gave away a freebie when he sliced the simpleist of back-passes. Thanks to strikes by van Persie and Hleb, Aresenal escaped with all three points and in the end Lehmann's comical kick turned out to be irrelevant.

But while even the Beckhams of this world can mis-cue on occassion, Lehmann's error agasint Blackburn last Saturday was dreadful. He appeared to have the ball covered, but obviously didn't. It was a pretty straightforward shot that the keeper should have kept his eye on, yet somehow it managed to slip through the international's grasp as if he wasn't there. A real schoolboy error that could prove costly come the end of the season because Arsenal should be walking all over clubs like Fulham and Blackburn.

That's just the way the game goes sometimes - it can be a very cruel sport but I'm sure Lehmann will bounce back. He knows he made two real howlers but he just has to put them out of his mind. He's strong enough and he's been around - good players bounce back and he's a good player.

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Howler No.2: No doubt about it, Liverpool were robbed of two points on Sunday. For all the talk of computerised technology, sometimes decisions have to come down to a single man in the middle of the pitch who has to make an on-the-spot ruling - sometimes partially sighted - at the spur of the moment. Rob Styles' decision to award the Blues a penalty midway through the second half was bizarre, but football is a people's sport and people sometimes make mistakes.

It was a controversial decision by referee Styles to penalise Liverpool's Steve Finnan for a challenge on Malouda just inside the box. In all fairness, it looked as if Malouda had jumped between Finnan and Carragher before tumbling. Finnan did all he could to avoid a collision and to rub salt into their wounds, Carragher was booked for understandably arguing. Lampard drove the spot-kick home, 1-1 was the final result and Chelsea snuck away from Anfield with a point.

There's no love lost between managers Rafael Benitez and Jose Mourinho and this sometimes ugly contest - which saw nine yellow cards - will do little to ease the tension.

All that being said, you have to admire the referee for holding his hands up and admitting that he had made a blunder - not everyone would be able to do that and I take my hat off to him.

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What a difference a summer - and a change of managers - can make. As last season drew to a close, Bolton Wanderers were pushing for a European spot. Big Sam Allerdyce had grabbed the unfashionable northern club by the scruff of the neck and propelled them from Division One non-starters to one of the hardest teams to beat in the top flight. There were no surprises when the plucky underdogs finished seventh in the top league.

That was seven places above Manchester City, who had a disappointing season for a big club and finished just four spots above the drop zone. Relegation remained a threat up until the last few games of the year and it was no surprise that Stuart 'Psycho' Pearce packed his bags in the summer.

Four months on and the tables have completely turned. City are sitting pretty at the top of the table while Bolton - three defeats in three games - languuish at the bottom.

The fact that both clubs have switched managers since May obviously has a lot to do with it. Big Sam - following his move to Newcastle - has been replaced by little Sammy Lee, while Pearce, now the England Under-21 manager, has been replaced by former England international manager Sven Eriksson.

Lee is no doubt finding it hard to fill his larger namesake's shoes while Eriksson, with all his experience in the international spotlight, probably finds the City job a walk in the park. You get a guy like Erricjkoson and hes got so much experience he knows players inside out and been around some of best in world. I'm picking City as my Cinderella team this year because Sven has brought in some marvellous players, some real class. If you play soccer in Brazil you're going to know what to do with a soccer ball and the two Brazilians he's brought in prove that. But I think the biggest plus is the defence which is now very big yet still very quick

In contrast, management is new to Sammy. He's never been the head man before and so obviously is on a learning curve. He's going to have to go through some hard times but hopefully he'll stick with it - the longer he stays in management the better he'll become. No one is guaranteed to go straight into management and becomne an instant success. So much depends on the players. He's got good players there but often it's the players - not the managers who lose you a game. They also have to be accountable. But I believe they are good enough to start picking up some results and as I said, it's still early days.

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Sometimes it just doesn't go right for you, and that's what SIr Alex Ferguson must be thinking right now. Two points from three games is United's worst start to the Premiership in years. They've dominated all three matches but just haven't been able to find the back of the net. In life there's a saying - if it ain't broke, don't fix it' - and Sir Alex brought in so many players this year and it's going to take some time for them to get used to playing together. Then you've got Ronaldo, who did something very stupid to get sent off last week - now he's suspended and they're going to have to get a new player in to fill the gap. But I do think United will be okay by the end of the season, after they've been given time to do what they can do.

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And finally, onto cricket. It was a tremendous result for the under 19s in Toronto to qualify for next year's World Cup. I just hope the people in our little county value the team qualfying. It speaks volumes for the team and coaching staff and Bermuda Cricket Board. The money that the sport has had over last year or two shows that, people given the exposure, our players can improve. The senior XI lost out to Holland this week but you're going to get that. Part of the problem that we have is availability of players. If your best players are not able to compete because of other commitments we're obviously not going to perform at our best. I think the BCB has to work with employers to find a way to release some players so that they can be available. You can't expect people to be 100 per cent committed to cricket if they don't knock off work until five o'clock. We're have only a very small pool of people to develop - just 60,000 and so we can't take any short cuts, otherwise we might as well forget about it.