Pardon the interruption, but World Cup fever is on its way

Arsenal are 9-4 to win the league. It’s a shocking price, isn’t it?

They’ve started the season magnificently, combining stylish, slick football with monumentally impressive results, but it can’t last, can it?

The summer strengthening has not been so successful that they can kick on from this position of superiority and actually repel City, can they?

Yes. You sense the doubts beginning to form in my mind. I thought they would improve a bit this term but never dreamed they would be challenging for the title by the time the season was rudely interrupted.

Clearly plenty of people now count themselves as believers, or should that be Salibas, in honour of their superb central defender, who is indisputably one of the stars of the first segment of this strange, disrupted campaign.

Arsenal lead City by five points after 14 games, meaning they have gained 14 more points than they did at the corresponding stage of the previous season, a hugely impressive feat by Mikel Arteta’s side.

As well as William Saliba, the signing of Gabriel Jesus has been far more successful than many would have predicted. The Brazilian has been superb, even though it is jarring how commentators always insist on referring to him as Jay-ZOOCE! every time he gets on the ball.

But it surely won’t last. The squad is not especially deep, and Granit Xhaka has not suddenly transformed into a midfield general capable of carrying the battle to City all the way to May.

City have 32 points, the same number haul as from last season’s first 14 games and know how to relentlessly collect enough wins to breeze to another championship.

How sad, though, that just as so many other fascinating questions have arisen, we have to wait six weeks to start to find out the answers.

Newcastle were tailed off with seven points after 14 games a year ago. Today they have 30, a startling turnaround that says more about the qualities of Eddie Howe than the money they have spent to improve so drastically.

The Mags are around 11-8 to gain a top four place and the progress they have made, allied to their wealth, means if they are not challenging City this time around, it won’t be long before they are.

Meanwhile the relegation picture has become far more captivating than appeared likely in August thanks to the decent starts made by the promoted trio, which makes plenty of established top-flight clubs vulnerable, not least Southampton, who are the standout value to go down.

But for now we must park Premier League musings, and focus on the least eagerly-awaited World Cup of my lifetime. The action begins on Sunday and my determination not to allow the switch to the end-of-year slot has, sadly, totally evaporated.

World Cups take place in summer, after a few weeks to get the excitement building. They are watched in pub gardens by people wearing shorts and T shirts.

The seven-day gap between league games ending and the World Cup starting, allied to the unfamiliarly bad weather at home, has completely robbed the tournament of the usual buzz.

I daresay we will get into it soon enough. The World Cup is the greatest show on Earth, each edition making an indelible impact on our journeys through life. We don’t just remember the winners and the epic moments, the finals form a benchmark to what our existences were like at the time.

Once the diet of four live games a day on channels that are accessible to all gets into full swing we will doubtless be immersed in the tournament and captivated by the ever-changing puzzle of who will emerge as champions.

Step one of the engagement process takes place today with the publication of the Racing Post guide, after which we will all be wiser and better placed to bet with confidence.

What does intrigue me is the pessimism surrounding England.

Having reached the semi-finals in Russia and then been a couple of penalty kicks away from winning the Euros last year, it is odd that the traditional comically misplaced hope is not evident again.

Even the market is sceptical of the Three Lions with 9-1 available, which seems perfectly acceptable to me.

Gareth Southgate has been far too loyal to his old warriors, and has selected players such as Harry Maguire and Jordan Henderson based on form that is far older than any club manager would consider relevant.

But he has abundant talent in almost every area except central defence. His reliance on the old guard at the back is the likeliest point of failure but similar things were said before Euro 2020 and they proved unfounded.

Here’s hoping for a fine tournament in which the fan experience turns out to be better than many are anticipating and which is not ruined by VAR in the way the domestic season has been.

The Premier League has shamefully found ways to make the application of VAR even more callously joy-killing than before, but perhaps the World Cup will show that if this hideous tool is never going to be junked it can at least be used in a way that eliminates some of the vandalism that continues to blight the English top division.

I wish I felt the same thrill as I have going into every tournament since 1974, but I suspect by this time next week I and plenty of others will have been reminded why there is nothing in sport as mighty and marvellous as the World Cup.

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