By Andrew Leci

IN MY last column, I suggested that what made the Barclays Premier League such a thing of beauty was the fact that, on any given day, any team is capable of beating any other.

Hull City proved me right, taking on an Arsenal side in fine fettle and beating them on their own turf. Phil Brown's boys enjoyed their North London sojourn last weekend, and they get the opportunity to revisit the area - against a Tottenham outfit for whom the word "beleaguered" is simply insufficient.

What has gone wrong?

Where do I start?

Despite spending much in the summer bringing in the talents of Giovanni dos Santos, Luka Modric, Vedran Corluka, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Heurelho Gomes and David Bentley, the club also saw the exits of Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane - one of the best strike partnerships in the league.

Those two produced 46 goals between them last season and, together with the January departure of Jermain Defoe, left Spurs with a huge void to fill in the attacking front.

To understate the obvious, they have not done so. With respect to current strikers Darren Bent and Pavlyuchenko, Keane and Berbatov are a tough act to follow.

But it's not just about scoring goals. I have also never seen a set of players who look so much like strangers to one another.

They couldn't seem to string three passes together unless it's just outside their own penalty box.

Ramos has also come up with some strange line-ups and even stranger formations - matters that need to be worked out in training, not six games into a season that has seen Spurs plummet to the bottom.

Suffice to say that poor results against Wisla Krakow in the Uefa Cup and Hull would put Ramos in an almost-untenable position by this weekend.

It's a sorry plight for a man who arrived in North London so keen to satisfy the hopes and expectations of success-starved Spurs fans.

Tottenham are the only team between Newcastle and the bottom of the table, and interim manager Joe Kinnear takes charge of the Magpies for the first time in this Sunday's visit to Everton.

If Spurs are in a mess on the field, Newcastle are in chaos off it.

Appointing a new manager on a "part-time" basis - one who was out of work for four years and had significant health problems - doesn't bode very well for the club.

It's a strange appointment, and one that smacks of desperation.

Newcastle must hope that Everton's poor home form continues, because being bottom of the league heading into the international break would add insult to the already- injured Geordie faithful.

Other ties that capture the imagination this weekend feature Paul Ince's Blackburn entertaining Manchester United, and Chelsea hosting Aston Vila.

Ince versus Alex Ferguson makes for a tasty encounter, while Chelsea and Aston Villa produced one of last season's most entertaining matches - a breathless 4-4 draw.

It's game on for everyone this weekend, with Ramos in particular wondering quite how long that will continue to be the case.

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