Such is the power of Ballwatching.

Tomorrow's games, Villa v Man Utd and Leeds v West Ham, look like crackers and Wednesday's crunch Champions' League clash between United and Bayern Munich could be a classic.

But don't overlook the Sunday and Monday matches, which are also promising. Sunday's is the all-northeast clash between Middlesbrough and Newcastle. Monday takes us to Hillsborough for Sheffield Wednesday v Forest.

Boro are one of the surprises of the season so far. In total contrast to the wild ride of their previous brief stint in the top flight, Bryan Robson seems to have taken a far more steady approach this time.

No Ravanelli, no Emerson, Branco or Juninho. But more decent results.

Even the loss of Paul Merson to Villa and the risky acquisition of the human timebomb Paul Gascoigne seem not to have disrupted the team's smooth progress. Gazza's alcohol addiction has been handled as calmly as possible and the less stellar body of players (Gary Pallister, Colin Cooper, Brian Deane, Andy Townsend, Curtis Fleming, Gianluca Festa, Robbie Mustoe, Hamilton Ricard, Mikkel Beck, Marco Branca) have gone quietly about their business.

Contrast that with Newcastle who have been in a permanent state of turbulence ever since Kevin Keegan's departure. The misdemeanours of two board members earlier this year, the decision to force out Dalglish two games into this season (after he'd spent a small fortune on dubious quality players in the summer), the false dawn of Ruud Gullit's early games in charge and the steady decline in performance all typify the grim situation at St James'.

On form you'd have to take Boro who last week walloped Arsenal 1-1 by all accounts.

But then again there's now the Duncan Ferguson factor. Two on debut was a great start and if he can spark some life back into the moribund Alan Shearer Newcastle may have a season yet.

Whatever the outcome you have to hope Sunday's match bears more resemblance to Boro's last two live outings (3-3 thriller v Southampton on November 7, and an unlucky 1-1 with Forest on November 1) than it does to Newcastle's (0-1 v Everton on Nov 23).

This latter game was a blue riband candidate for stinker of the season. Scrappy in the extreme, it was really a 0-0 draw dressed up as a 1-0 Everton win by dint of a penalty (typical). (Everton's embarrassing struggle for goals at home, incidentally, should really necessitate a ban on televised matches from Goodison until the team have racked up at least, say 10 home goals).

The real drama of that encounter at Goodison was happening off screen. While the game plodded on, Newcastle were pulling off the Ferguson signing. This is where a little more than just match action would be so helpful. A bit of post-match coverage, such as viewers get in England, could have revealed some inkling of the transfer deal.

Wednesday v Forest on Monday doesn't look a glamour match at first glance. But, as Boro have shown, who needs glamour? Wednesday looked pretty useful in spoiling Chel-sea's run of form with that draw at the Bridge last week.

Don't forget one of Wednesday's TV appearances this season featured the Paolo Di Canio ref-shoving incident so there is a precedent for memorable matches from this venue.

As for Forest, they're struggling but they do have Pierre Van Hooydonk back in the lineup. His presence is the most bizarre example of the way money is ruining the game.

The giant Dutchman's petulant one-man strike/sulk on the dod-gy grounds that Forest were not 'showing enough ambition' for his liking, reeked of a bid for more wages.

Manager Dave Bassett's candid 'arsehole' speech in which he flatly rejected Big Pierre's chan-ces of ever playing again for Forest should have put an end to the matter.

But of course the club's need to sell the player necessitated a shop window, hence the reportedly odd scenes of under-enthusiastic goal celebration by Van Hooydonk's teammates. The prospect of his scoring and being cold-shouldered by colleagues should make this worth waiting up for.