At the start of every season, three or four clubs hope they will compete for the Premier League title. A handful more have an eye on the European places. The rest? They just want to stay in the division.
This is the Premier League that we have made, a club where membership is everything. As one executive said midway through the break in play: 'Forget the cups and forget Europe. If you offered us a place in the Premier League for the next 10 years and absolutely nothing else, we would bite your hand off.'
So this is where we are at as the 28th season of the Premier League resumes this week.