A miserable display from Middlesbrough it may have been, but West Brom deserve all the credit for producing a stunning and unrelentless display of football that earned them the three points with a brilliant 0-5 win at the Riverside.

Di Matteo says that his team have made a statement of intent to the rest of the league and it really is difficult to see any other club that is producing this quality of football that is in a position to challenge.

It is early days of course, but on this evidence it looks very likely that West Brom will bounce back to the Premiership, possibly in better shape than they left it.

Newcastle are one of the clubs likely to challenge hardest for the title, they have already surprised many with their start to the season and considering the injury crisis and ongoing sale of the club causing much distraction, the Magpies remain just one point behind West Bromwich Albion after beating bottom of the table Plymouth 3-1 at St James’ Park.

Sheffield United are in fifth place,  following an impressive derby win over local rivals Sheffield Wednesday who the beat 3-2 on Friday, Wednesday coming back from 3-0 at half time made for a great finish to the game, well for the fans anyway.

There was certainly an abundance of goals in the Championship this weekend, Preston regained fourth place following another 3-2 win against Coventry and Peterborough got the upper hand over Reading with the same score.

Watford and Leicester battled out a 3-3 draw, doing neither club any favours with a point apiece while Roy Keane’s Ipswich saw their first win snatched away in yet another 3-3 draw at Doncaster.

Doesn’t make sense does it.  While West Hams problems have been firmly brought about by the ravaging effect of the global credit crisis on the clubs previous owner, the problems at Newcastle would appear to be more self inflicted.

Sam Allardyce could surely have secured a mid table place for them given time, Kevin  Keegan left the club because he felt he had no say in transfer policies and poor old Joe Kinnear was never given a chance by the ‘cockney mafia‘ doubters, ending the season on sick leave after heart bypass surgery.

Alan Shearer was eventually made an offer he couldn’t refuse, in an ill conceived effort to avoid relegation that frankly he could do little about. Newcastle were relegated on merit and now need to find a buyer who can bring some calm and offer a future to the club.

Former chairman Freddy Shepherd is among the interested parties and would appear the ideal candidate to steer the club back to it’s former state and more importantly bring an end to the Mike Ashley era and furthermore an end to his personal misery.