When Jermaine Jenas declared on Saturday evening that Arsenal are now his pick for the Premier League title, a few moments of awkward silence fell over the Match of the Day studio as Ruud Gullet and Gary Lineker expressed mild disbelief through their facial muscles – and not because of the retired midfielder’s ties with local rivals Tottenham.

It’s not very fashionable for pundits to actively express support for the Gunners. Most would prefer to focus on the club’s limited spending during the summer and how sharply it deviates from the Premier League norm, or the apparent naivety of Arsene Wenger’s overtly attacking tactics, or their admittedly poor performances against Olympiacos last month and Sheffield Wednesday last week.

Consequentially, a common narrative has developed from the Premier League’s punditry alumni, claiming that regardless of form or results or any other factor suggesting otherwise, history will inevitably repeat itself in north London and Arsenal will finish the campaign as nearly men once again.

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It’s what the media, pundits and even the Premier League table has told us for the most part of the last decade, so perhaps the uniformity in that belief shouldn’t be so surprising. Having inevitably slipped away from the unassailable heights of the Invincibles, Arsenal are always a bit of an easy target when criticising for criticism’s sake.

But unpredictability is the beauty of football. Chelsea’s miraculous decline from champions to potentially managerless relegation battlers is mesmerising because it has been completely unexpected; so if even Jose Mourinho’s fortunes can plummet between the course of May and August, why can’t the reverse be true for the Gunners? It’s time the pundits started taking Arsenal a little more seriously, judging them on the present rather than the past.

As I have been arguing for the last few weeks, there is something subtly yet intrinsically different about Arsenal at the moment – something only noticeable if you watch them closely for a full ninety minutes rather than depending upon the abbreviated analysis of Match of the Day. They’ve become craftier, more pragmatic and more ruthless since the start of the season, once again evident during their 3-0 win over Swansea City on Saturday.

3-0 is the perfect score line for any title-contending side. It requires the attacking threat to score thrice, the defensive organisation to claim a clean sheet, the quality to dominate an opponent yet the maturity to not waste energy or take unnecessary risks in pursuit of a more self-indulgent score line.

So Saturday’s result makes it three 3-0 wins in four Premier League games for Arsenal, intriguingly enough against three different calibres of opponent in lower-mid-tablers Watford, upper-mid-tablers Swansea City and fellow title contenders Manchester United. Each side required a different strategy and each match took its own unique course of events, yet Arsenal ended up with the same score line – the perfect score line – every time.

Furthermore, a telling pattern has developed throughout these three fixtures. Against the Hornets, the Swans and the Red Devils, Arsenal’s three goals all came in 15-minute to 25-minute bursts. Rather than simply attacking from the first minute to the last, the Gunners waited for the match’s momentum to swing in their favour before allowing their predatory instincts to take over. That’s something we’ve all known Arsenal are capable of for a long time – but it’s the balance, organisation and restraint they’ve demonstrated in the remaining 65-odd minutes that suggests this Gunners side varies from its predecessors.

No doubt, we are looking at a different Arsenal this season – a more precise, calculated, balanced and focused Arsenal. Whether that means Jenas’ title-winning prediction is correct remains to be seen. After all, the Gunners lack the depth of current favourites and table-toppers Manchester City, who lead them on goal difference, and there have been disappointing performances this season in the Champions League and the Capital One Cup.

But if the north London outfit don’t claim this season’s English crown, it won’t simply be because history has condemned them not to, as pundits continually seem to imply. This Arsenal team have indisputably improved; it’s now a question of whether they’ve improved enough.

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Either way, unconvinced sectors of the media need to start accepting Arsene Wenger’s side as genuine title contenders – or they could look incredibly silly come the end of May.

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Newcastle fans have been discussing making a surprise swoop for Jermain Defoe, and fans are completely split on a move for the former England international.

Newcastle are on the hunt for some more firepower up front this summer, so should they make a bargain swoop for Defoe?

The Chronicle list the 35 year-old as a possible target for this summer, and his age and lack of playing time at Bournemouth could make him available for a bargain price.

The Magpies have been linked with a move for Bournemouth’s Josh King, but a deal for the Norwegian would be a lot more expensive and could even mean Matt Ritchie, a fan favourite, heads the other way.

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Defoe wouldn’t be the first choice number nine Rafael Benitez is looking for, but he could operate as a “super sub”.

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Many fans feel they need a minimum of two new strikers this summer, as Aleksandar Mitrovic will almost certainly leave and Dwight Gayle and Joselu simply aren’t Premier League standard.

Fans are split on a move for Defoe, as it seems plenty haven’t forgotten about the fact he spent two years at Sunderland, where he was a fan favourite. The slight majority are leaning in favour of making a shock swoop for the 57-cap striker though, and you can find the full poll results down below…

Northamptonshire Steelbacks kept themselves in touch with the National League Division One frontrunners as Matthew Hayden and David Sales guided them to an eight-wicket victory over Leicestershire Foxes in a rain-affected contest at Wantage Road.The third-wicket pair came to the rescue with Northants in trouble at 21-2 replying to the Foxes’ total of 220-7, and had carried the score to 103-2 from 25 overs when the weather intervened.Play was delayed for 65 minutes, and when the players made their way back on to the field the Steelbacks were left to make a further 19 in three overs to notch their third successive win.Hayden and Sales – who finished unbeaten on 69 and 43 respectively – made short work of the task, skipper Hayden settling the issue when he swept Amer Khan to the boundary with five balls remaining.Leicestershire’s batting honours belonged to opener Trevor Ward who stroked 61 from 79 deliveries including a six and six fours. He put on 82 in 15 overs with Aftab Habib (28) to make up for the early loss of Vince Wells.Ben Smith (34) and Darren Stevens (30 not out) also contributed usefully, and the Foxes were on top when Northants lost Jeff Cook and Mal Loye in the first seven overs of their reply.But the in-form Hayden, who faced 67 balls and struck 11 boundaries in his decisive knock, saw his side through to a win which leaves them just four points behind top-of-the-table Worcestershire Royals.

Opener Jerry Cassell has been recalled to the XXXX Queensland Bulls teamfor the Pura Cup match against Tasmania in Hobart next week.Cassell, who was ruled out of the Bulls team that played against theTigers at the Gabba last month due to illness, will link with theremainder of the Queensland players in Hobart on Monday, following theING Cup match on Sunday at Bellerive Oval.Bulls captain Stuart Law, who will miss Sunday’s one-day match due tothe imminent birth of his first child, is scheduled to join the team onTuesday to prepare for the Pura Cup match.Bulls one-day players Lee Carseldine and debutant Michael Sippel willfly from Hobart to Canberra following Sunday’s match to link with theQueensland Academy of Sport team that plays the ACT in their ACB Cup 2ndXI match starting on Monday.XXXX Queensland Bulls v Tasmania, Pura Cup, Jan 17-20: Stuart Law (c),Jimmy Maher, Jerry Cassell, Martin Love, Clinton Perren, Brendan Nash,Wade Seccombe, Ashley Noffke, Nathan Hauritz, Michael Kasprowicz, JoeDawes, James Hopes (12th man to be named).Queensland Academy of Sport v ACT, ACB Cup 2nd XI, Canberra, Jan 14-20:Lee Carseldine (c), Duncan Betts, Chris Simpson, Daniel Payne, AllanRowe, Michael Sippel, Chris Hartley, Scott O’Leary, Damien Mackenzie,Matthew Anderson, Steve Magoffin, Matthew Petrie (all twelve to play).

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsAny England supporter with the vaguest sense of Ashes history would have felt mild trepidation as they defended a first-innings score of 430 on a sunny Cardiff day. The last time an Ashes Test ventured into Wales, England made pretty much the same score, only to concede 674 for 6 and need some heroic resistance from James Anderson and Monty Panesar to escape with a draw.That being so, England, even while believing the total was a par score, will have been relieved to prise out five Australian batsmen by the close of the second day with a largely disciplined bowling performance. They lead by 166 and will hope to cut deep into the tail with the second new ball, which is 10 overs away.Six years on, the Land of Song has produced another placid Ashes surface – when the ball goes soft, it is less Tom Jones’ Green, Green Grass of Home than the Manic Street Preachers’ Some Kind of Nothingness, slow enough on occasions to crush any happiness you know. That this first Investec Test has generally been so fascinating is testimony to the attacking resolve of both sides.The businesslike figure of Chris Rogers fashioned Australia’s response. A prolonged career in English county cricket before Australia finally came calling has made such slow, low pitches his natural habitat.His wicket carries slightly less kudos than some, outside a dressing room at any rate, but his 95 was the innings of a solid citizen, replete with watchful off-side drives: he pushed the ball into the covers as if emerging warily from a T-junction on the lookout for oncoming traffic. It sounds unfair to term him careful when he feels, with justification, that he is careering along, but his squat deflections and placements are shots of calculation.He fell five runs short of what would have been his fourth Ashes hundred, cutting a ball quite tight to him from Mark Wood and edging to Jos Buttler. From 180 for 3, gambolling along at more than four in over, in keeping with England’s progress, Australia dried, with James Anderson to the fore, and the rate slipped to three an over against a softening ball, for the loss of Michael Clarke and Adam Voges, before the close.Rogers did have a world record to ponder. His feat of seven successive Test fifties had been achieved only by Everton Weekes, Andy Flower, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Kumar Sangakkara. Perhaps not surprisingly for a record that reveals consistency rather than grandeur, all of them, with the exception of Weekes, the domineering West Indian, have often been described in the same workmanlike terms befitting Rogers.That sequence was interrupted by the concussion that forced him out of a recent Test series in the West Indies and Stuart Broad might have exposed one or two leftover signs with the short ball. Rogers, though, did achieve his first Test six – a sort of coming of age in his 21st Test – when he hooked a bouncer to long leg, brushing the fingertips of the leaping Moeen Ali who crossed the line in a vain attempt to fashion a catch.Rogers also survived a review. There was swing initially for England’s new-ball attack and Broad came close to removing Rogers, on 2, only for England’s review – encouraged as ever by Broad, his ravenous desire for wickets colouring his conclusion – to be rejected as Rogers was saved by a thin inside edge.David Warner was the first Australian batsman to fall, driving Anderson on the up and well taken by Alastair Cook at first slip. It was Warner at his least aggressive (in Walkabout bar terms, 8pm at the latest) and he also needed to overturn an lbw decision on 13 when Anderson struck his back pad but replays showed the ball had pitched outside leg stump.As Australia hurtled ahead, England were grateful for the resilience of Moeen, who cut down Steven Smith and Clarke with their innings established. That Australia would target him was inevitable, just as they had targeted Graeme Swann so successfully on their own pitches two years earlier. Smith seemed to have his measure, one assertive over bringing three boundaries in four balls: stylish straight drive, dragged straight drive and a resounding dance down the pitch to loft him gloriously over mid-off.But Cook persisted with Moeen and he was rewarded with a prize wicket – a reward, too, for a carefully-plotted field position. Smith, on 33, advanced down the pitch, but Moeen floated the ball down leg, a little turn taking the ball further away from the batsman, who became entirely squared up and toppled over to the off side as he chipped the ball to short mid-on.Clarke also came down the wicket with intent and, if his shot was more balanced than Smith’s, the outcome was equally ill-fated as he drove back a firm return catch. Voges’ dismissal owed much to England’s ability to create pressure with the old ball, Ben Stokes being rewarded for one of his most disciplined England spells by having Voges caught at short extra as the ball took a puff of dust from the pitch.Moeen’s graceful batting, sprinkled with occasional fortune, had also been to the fore in the morning before England succumbed for 430, adding another 97 in only 14.1 overs. Moeen played with delightful freedom in extending his innings to 77 from 88 balls before he edged Mitchell Starc to Shane Watson at slip. He also edged Starc to the keeper on 34, but Australia, strangely introverted, did not appeal as they were fooled by the bat scraping the ground.Starc then bowled Anderson to return 5 for 114 but he has ankle trouble and, although he will hope to get through the Test unscathed, he must be doubtful for the second Test at Lord’s which follows so soon afterwards.As for Mitchell Johnson’s Reign of Terror, the first signs were that it may not be fit for export as he returned his worst Test figures. Johnson remained wicketless, he doffed his cap to the crowd as his bowler’s century was cheered ironically and he had the misfortune to have to pedal back at long-off in a futile attempt to try to catch a lofted drive from Moeen as he toe-ended Nathan Lyon’s offspin down the ground.Take Broad, add an Ashes series, and the result is invariably some hoo-ha or other. On this occasion he was the potential victim as Voges claimed a dubious catch at short leg. For the only time, Broad tried to stand tall to a bouncer from Johnson, squirmed the ball into the leg side and Voges was entangled between the batsman’s feet by the time he claimed the catch.The review showed that the ball dragged along the ground and boos predictably resounded, but Broad and Voges, former team-mates at Nottinghamshire, just had a quick chat and got on with it, Broad soon falling trying to slog sweep Lyon’s first ball.

What was Michael Clarke thinking then, as he swung lustily at Stuart Broad’s first ball to him? The scoreboard was showing 29 for 5 and Australia’s Ashes hopes were hanging by the same thread that still connects him to the captaincy of the national side. What was Clarke thinking?”I was thinking if he pitches it up I’m going to hit it as far as I can,” Clarke said. “I watched guys around me get out trying to defend, and I thought like I’ve always said, the better the bowling, the more aggressive you’ve got to be. You live by the sword, you die by the sword.”And so die Clarke did, Australia’s Ashes chances and more than likely numerous careers also. Clarke said this day was as bad as any in his career, comparable to being bowled out for 47 by South Africa at Cape Town in 2011. But he refused to apportion much blame to his batsmen, instead insisting Stuart Broad and the seaming Trent Bridge conditions were largely to blame.”It’s up there. That and being bowled out for 47 against South Africa is not a nice one to remember. That’s as tough as they come today,” he said. “There’s no doubt we didn’t bat well but they were good conditions to bowl in. That’s as tough a batting conditions as I’ve faced in my career.”It’s always a lot easier watching than it is playing. The guys have worked extremely hard in the nets in conditions that have swung and seamed. Shot selection is a critical part of being a successful batsman, there’s no doubt about it. It might look like a lot of the guys could have let those balls go but the class of Stuart Broad, he was bringing the ball back into the right-hander where he normally takes it away.Michael Clarke played a rash shot to hasten Australia’s demise•Getty Images

“So that makes you feel like you have to play a lot more. I don’t want to take anything away from Stuart, I thought he bowled really well. When you look at a replay on the big screen and you see where the three stumps are and you see where the batter gets out it looks like you don’t have to play it. But that’s the way it goes.”Clarke and the selectors are already facing criticism for a team composition that had Mitchell Marsh dropped for his brother Shaun, allowing Clarke to move down to No. 5 but also leaving him with a bowling attack composed of three strike bowlers in Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Johnson, but no allrounder.In contravention of his assertion two days out from the game, Clarke said that the plan this morning would have been to bowl first had he won the toss. “The team, at the end of the day the selectors pick the team and I respect what they do,” he said. “We’ve got some very good selectors to be honest. So, I think their reasons for the eleven players they gave me and that we spoke about were very good.”I think we’ve seen at Edgbaston, Mitch Marsh didn’t bowl too many overs. We knew this wicket was going to have enough in it, the plan was to bowl first. And the extra batting – knowing that if we didn’t win the toss it was going to be hard to bat. So the selectors wanted that extra batting as well to make as many runs as we could.”I think the selectors have been fantastic all series, they’ve been very open and honest with me. They’ve kept the faith with certain players. It doesn’t matter what XI you pick, you’ve got to play as well as you possibly can and we didn’t do that today.”Clarke conceded that Australia’s batsmen needed to spend more time in conditions like they witnessed at Trent Bridge in order to have a chance of succeeding more often away from Australia. “It’s hard to bat when the ball is swinging and seaming and that’s something the guys have experienced over here,” he said.”You face that a lot in South Africa as well and even in Shield cricket. We can obviously improve against seam, swing, and spin. You’re looking to get better in any way possible, and the best way to do that is to play in those conditions.”

Nasir Hossain, the Bangladesh allrounder, has said that Bangladesh A’s upcoming series against India A will be ideal preparation for the home series against Australia in October. Nasir is one of 14 national players included in the Bangladesh A squad, who are scheduled to play three one-dayers and a three-day game against India A, as well as a three-day match against Ranji Trophy champions Karnataka.”Doing well in India will keep us well prepared for the Australia series next month,” Nasir said. “I think this is why there’s a number of national team players in this team. We are going there to win the one-day series. It is better that we are playing the three-day matches in the latter part of the tour. After we play the two three-dayers, we play against Australia.”Expecting a tough opposition from India A, Nasir feels the tour will be helpful for the national players. “We have returned to training after a break. We will have a number of national team players in the side.”This tour will be good for our individual performances. It will be harder because India A will not make it any easier for us. I feel it will be a good contest,” he said.After being dropped for the Zimbabwe series last year, for the first time in his international career, Nasir completed his comeback in all three formats in July this year when he was picked for the second Test against South Africa. He was unbeaten on 13 the end of the first day, but the rest of the game was rained off.Nasir continued to stay in the limited-overs squads after he was picked for the World Cup, but did not spend a lot of time in the middle, the longest stretch being 44 balls against South Africa in the first ODI. Instead, his bowling flourished as Mashrafe Mortaza persisted with him in critical phases of one-day games.He said that he does not have a personal target for the India tour but he will be looking to grab any chance that comes his way. “I played in the last Test so I don’t really have to make a comeback. I play each match to perform. We have to play well in India. They are a strong side. We will be more focused in this tour.”I don’t have a personal target. I want to make use of any opportunity that comes up,” he said.

For a match which had a shadow of politics over it in the run-up, the finale happened amidst fireworks – the big, booming, fill-the-sky-with-lights kind of scenes – for the handful of spectators who hung around after India had been beaten in Rajkot. MS Dhoni arrived for the press conference, waited a bit for the noise to die down and then decided he ought to enjoy a bit of the show himself.When he finally came back to address the media, matters were more to the point. One of the topics addressed was that the batting shuffle in the third ODI was one of the ways India’s line-up could look to become flexible and ensure their batsmen adapted to the pressures and demands of batting at various positions in ODIs, a push put of their comfort zone.India were set a target of 271 by South Africa, and like the previous two ODIs, the side opted to shuffle its batting order again. Virat Kohli walked out at No. 3, a position many feel he is best suited for, and he responded with 77, his first fifty since the World Cup. Dhoni himself came in at No. 4, a position he has said in the past he wanted to bat at but could not because of the relative inexperience in the line-up. Ajinkya Rahane, who played at No. 3 in the two preceding ODIs, came in at No. 6 below Suresh Raina, by when Morne Morkel and the rest of South Africa’s attack had effectively throttled the chase.One reason for the shuffle, Dhoni had said in the post-match presentation, was that India hadn’t quite settled on a stable order at five, six, and seven and needed a stronger batting hand at No. 7.”I want to bat up the order but I also want people who can contribute lower down the order. So I have to mix and match it and what will be good will be if I can bat a number of overs, create a partnership and if I have played enough deliveries I can play the big shots later on,” Dhoni said. “That’s the thinking behind it, but it means that a few of the other batsmen will also have to accommodate according to that. They may score at times, they may not score at times, but the good thing is they’ll get experience of batting down the order.”Also because at times I felt the Indian batting line-up becomes quite rigid – ‘This is my batting slot and there is where I will bat’ – but at times when you bat down the order you get to know what are the difficulties. I won’t say it’s easy to bat up the order but you always have the cushion of three-four batsmen behind you so you know you can play your big shots. But once you are batting at five or six, No. 7 is quite thin so when you are looking to play the big shots, you have to back yourself and say, ‘Okay I can’t really mistime it.’ These are the pressures that you have to go through if you are batting down the order.”Some part of that churn, to bat people at different positions and see who fits what role, also happened when India toured Sri Lanka recently. Rohit Sharma and Rahane had swapped positions three and five for the first two Tests, batting around Kohli at No. 4. After the first ODI in Kanpur, Dhoni had stated how Rahane batting at No. 3 gave the home side a lot of strength on paper, and while he promoted Kohli back to No. 3 today, Dhoni said the team could revisit the idea of keeping him at No. 4, as they look to strengthen the lower half of their batting order.”If I have to bat up the order, someone has to bat down the order,” he said. “There’s a lot of confusion when it comes to the media side because they want me to bat at four but they want Virat to bat at three and they want Jinx (Rahane) to bat at four. It’s not really possible, there are only two slots and only three batsmen.”There will always be a question. As I said, I’ve explained it, we want Virat to bat at three but at some point we’d love to have a look at him at four. Usually the No. 4 batsman will get to play 30 overs and 30 overs is a good number of overs to score a hundred and it also adds depth to our batting.Not to forget we are still looking for somebody at No. 7 who can play the big shots and if that doesn’t happen, the extra pressure has to be absorbed by the top six batters. So you have to find people who fulfil that job and also you have to play with five bowlers because the part-timers find it slightly difficult to bowl full quota of ten overs. So there are a lot of things that you have to manage and accordingly decide which person suits the position the best.”In Rajkot, India scored only 37 runs during overs 31 to 40 with Dhoni and Kohli in the middle, and it left the lower order with too much to do at the end. And with the pitch slowing down considerably, India found the big shots harder to execute. Dhoni, however, also pointed out that India’s slow start had an impact on the chase.”I think that was the crucial phase, that and the first ten. I don’t think we got enough runs in the first ten, especially the fact that the wicket kept getting slower,” he said. “And 30th to 40th was again a crucial period. We wanted to bat quite late but at the same time we started playing the big shots close to the 37th over but we were not really able to connect. Both me and Virat were set and we wanted to play the big shot but we never really middled anything.”Also not to forget the outfield here is big which meant that when you are playing the big shots more often than not you have to clear the fielder. It was a tough one when there’s less pace on offer you can’t use the pace of the bowlers.”

ScorecardPeter Forrest’s 71-ball 57 formed the base for Queensland’s winning total of 209•Getty Images

Queensland had the better of a sluggish pitch at Blacktown Oval to defeat Victoria in an attritional, low scoring Matador Cup match.The Bushrangers captain Matthew Wade sent the Bulls in to bat in western Sydney and would have been content when the Queenslanders were only able to cobble a tally of 209 all out.However, a Bulls bowling collective led with typical thrift by the former captain James Hopes was able to corral the Bushrangers so successfully that only Wade was able to score his runs at anything like the rate required without giving his wicket away cheaply.James Pattinson also hinted at his immense batting ability in the most productive partnership of the innings, but it was too little, too late after the Bushrangers had slid to 7 for 79.The Bulls owed much to their stand-in captain Peter Forrest, who played with admirable composure for his 57 from 71 balls, pulling together much of Queensland’s score with the help of a restrained Nathan Reardon.At the time of his dismissal the Bushrangers would have felt happy with their work, but as it turned out the Queenslanders had already made one more run than Wade’s men would manage.

The two greatest batsmen of their generation will now get a chance to bat together as captain Sachin Tendulkar drew Brian Lara’s name along with 13 other players as part of the “Sachin’s Blasters” squad for the Cricket All-Stars series beginning at Citi Field on Saturday.In a random draw conducted Thursday in Times Square, Tendulkar drew Lara as well as former Indian teammates VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag. Tendulkar also no longer has to spar with Glenn McGrath, having picked the Australian pacer for his side in a bowling group that also includes Curtly Ambrose, Shaun Pollock and Muttiah Muralitharan.While the luck of the draw meant that Tendulkar wound up with his Indian batting brethren, Shane Warne wound up drawing a slew of his former Australian teammates to play for “Warne’s Warriors” including Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting and Andrew Symonds. Warne also wound up with a dream fast bowling trio of Courtney Walsh, Allan Donald and Wasim Akram.While the first 26 players were drawn by lots, Shoaib Akhtar’s status was decided by a coin flip. Warne called heads, but the coin came up tails, drawing a big sigh of relief from Tendulkar. The first All-Stars match begins on November 7 at Citi Field in New York with two more in Houston and Los Angeles on November 11 and 14.Sachin’s Blasters: Sachin Tendulkar (c), VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Brian Lara, Mahela Jayawardene, Carl Hooper, Lance Klusener, Shaun Pollock, Moin Khan, Graeme Swann, Glenn McGrath, Muttiah Muralitharan, Shoaib Akhtar, Curtly AmbroseWarne’s Warriors: Shane Warne (c), Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Michael Vaughan, Jacques Kallis, Kumar Sangakkara, Andrew Symonds, Jonty Rhodes, Saqlain Mushtaq, Wasim Akram, Daniel Vettori, Courtney Walsh, Allan Donald, Ajit Agarkar