Get ready for the 2am alarm clock buzz, reserve that early Sunday morning couch spot and TV remote, and strap yourself in, the European Football Season is upon us. For many that means endless hours in the dead of night up watching the English Premier League, La Liga, Serie A or The Bundesliga.

After the disappointment of England's World Cup campaign, it will be fascinating to see whether the EPL has lost any of its lustre as the most watched league on the planet. The heavyweight teams are still loaded up with International talent and it looks like the usual suspects will be there about come next April and May when the silverware is being handed out.

The obvious questions to be asked ahead of the new EPL season are: Will Sir Alex and his loyal veterans and young starlets be able to reclaim the title? Has the arrival of Roy Hodgson at Anfield smoothed the troubled waters on Merseyside as The Reds try to end a twenty year title drought? And will Arsene Wenger's list of wunderkinds finally ditch all the promise in exchange for a fair dose of purpose and win a trophy for The Professor? Or will Manchester City, on its endless shopping splurge, finally have it their way by simply having the English Premier League Trophy put up on ebay so they can buy it the easy way?

City's ruthless fiscal power has taken the most unlikely casualties. The news that Martin O'Neill has quit at Aston Villa just days out from the start of the campaign has blindsided everyone.  The highly regarded Northern Irishman has fallen out with the club hierarchy over the potential sale of English midfielder James Milner to the Eastland's club. City seduced his one-time captain, Gareth Barry, with humungous buckets of cash last season. 

O'Neill's frustration at simply being used as football academy by cashed up billionaires in football boots has obviously pushed him over the edge.  It doesn't bode well for Villa's progress, or indeed for the health of the competition, when good coaches feel they are no longer in a fair fight.

At home to Arsenal on the weekend, Liverpool needs to make a statement of intent.

The Reds are still stinging from missing out on Champions League football and are desperate to reassert their status as part of "The Big Four" of English football. 

The club has suffered a crisis of confidence for the last few years as co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett bickered with one another, estranged the fans and saw results on the pitch fall away.

The departure of Rafa Benitez might be the circuit breaker. Roy Hodgson achieved impressive results with his modest but talented squads at Fulham, coming within touching distance of last year's Europa Cup.  It might be that after years of trying to cultivate a continental mentality both on the pitch and in the backroom, the answer for Liverpool might be found right at home. 

Certainly Joe Cole's signature was a boost for Scouse morale, and the retention of Gerrard and Torres suggests the instability has been quelled - for now.

Closer to home, it was feast or famine in the opening round of the A-League, with a couple of 3-3 thrillers and a bag of donuts on offer at the rest of the fixtures. The only game that delivered all three points to one team was on the opening night when The Central Coast Mariners went on a raid to AAMI Park and got a result against the new boys, Melbourne Heart.

There's no doubt that as season six of the domestic competition gets under way, games that produce half a dozen goals will be a welcome sight to FFA HQ. Whilst the aficionados can find enough nutrients to sustain their passion for the game in a tight, tense nil all draw, the casual fan still finds it a barrier to embracing the game.

It's a battle for hearts and minds and the bolder your highlights reel, the better chance you've got of winning the war.

As the A-League battles for airtime in the slipstream of the closing weeks of the other footy codes and their finals series, a couple more goal fests and thrilling finishes like the ones we saw in Perth and Sydney on the opening weekend will steal a few headlines along the way.

Whilst the FFA is punting on establishing Melbourne Heart in one of its major markets to generate a local rivalry and that much coveted marquee match - the derby - it's clear that the A-League's fiercest enmity exists beyond the city limits of Sydney and Melbourne and stretches the length of the Hume Highway.

Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory wrote yet another chapter in their short but brilliant shared history last weekend with their season opener. Following on from the penalty shootout drama of last year's Grand Final and stretching all the way back to the inaugural season's 5-0 Victory romp over Sydney at Olympic Park, these two are the genuine article - rivals in every sense.

Notionally, Heart is there to muscle in on that territory. If they play well enough to constitute a threat to either of the A-League's big boys they may well achieve that. For now, though, this rivalry has history, passion and a story to tell. We can't wait to see what the next chapter has in store.