Chelsea and Arsenal misfiring...

The most bizarre sight of the day on Saturday in the Premiership this weekend came at Stamford Bridge where after scoring for Charlton against his old club, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink appeared to apologise to the Chelsea fans behind the goal, they responded by applauding their former hero...

You do wonder what would happen if Ashley Cole scored against his old club Arsenal? Cole came on as a substitute to make his home debut after his prolonged and protracted switch from North to West London. I doubt the Arsenal fans would applaud the England left-back should he notch against his former employers, I also doubt Cole will be apologising...

Cole's new team Chelsea picked up another home win against Charlton, who continue to struggle. It could have and perhaps should have been, an easier win that than the 2-1 scoreline suggested. Lampard missed another penalty ensuring it looked closer than it was.

Despite the win, Chelsea have looked unconvincing thus far this season, at present they have the look of a collection of expensive foriegn car parts that have been assembled to create a ground breaking new prototype, that doesnt quite look right in shape or form. As with the way with prototypes, they can look better on paper rather than on the road. Which is the way of it with Chelsea at present.

Granted they have a squad to die for and Mourinho will I'm sure add that vital fine tuning to turn this latest incarnation into a winning machine. It's early days yet, but continued development is going to be interesting. And as we saw with William Gallas, there's no room for unhappy passengers. Will Jose succeed in keeping his big star names happy?

As for Arsenal, they too are misfiring, and it was another disappointing performance and result, 1-1 at home to 'Boro. It terms of results, they haven't got off the starting grid yet. You do wonder how much difference moving into the new stadium has affected them. Apparently the new playing surface is 10 yards wider and longer than Highbury.

The former pitch was so small, I'm fairly certain they had to have special dispensation from the UEFA to use it. Many believed that the small Highbury pitch had given Arsenal a significant home advantage. No more.

Many United fans will be hoping Arsenal follow the same path as Southampton, whose old ground the Dell was a proverbial postage stamp, the Saints have been on the road to nowhere ever since...

Chelsea and Arsenal will get better. The race hasn't even started yet.