HAVING spent the eve of England's new league season worrying whether

their magnificent new North Bank stand would be finished in time,

Arsenal officials were reduced by four o'clock on Saturday afternoon to

concern that supporters might be flinging themselves from the top tier

in frustration.

For the second year running, George Graham's team, well backed as

potential champions, had offered early encouragement, soon to be erased

by defending as suicidal as their followers must have been feeling.

Last season it was Norwich City who came from 2-0 down at Highbury to

score four times without further reply; this time, the equally

unregarded Coventry City resisted an early assault and went on to claim

the outstanding result of the opening day with a hat trick in half an

hour by the ebullient Mick Quinn.

Whether insulted or delighted to find himself priced at 50-1 to finish

as the Premiership's leading scorer, Quinn invested #50 and went on to

establish himself as the clubhouse leader. Arsenal had little time to

dwell on their misery, for tonight they must play away to Tottenham, of

all teams.

They will find their neighbours preening themselves after having

grounded another club who had been reaching for the sky. Teddy

Sheringham's first-half goal was a reminder to Newcastle United that

hype alone never won any points. Although doubts about Kevin Keegan's

side have centred on their defence, it was the attack, in the absence of

Peter Beardsley, that disappointed most.

With six out of 10 matches finishing in away wins, Anfield was one of

unexpectedly few venues where deflation was not the prevailing emotion.

Helped on their way by the sending-off of Sheffield Wednesday's Carlton

Palmer after only 12 minutes, Liverpool took a comfortable, and

comforting, victory with two goals by Nigel Clough on an assured debut.

With Blackburn coming from behind to defeat Glenn Hoddle's Chelsea on

his debut at Stamford Bridge, the only other home winners on Saturday

were Aston Villa, by a flattering 4-1 against Queen's Park Rangers, and

Sheffield United, playing in one of four games which brought together

eight teams expected to spend the next eight months in the nether

reaches. Swindon Town, likely to be the nethermost of them all, were the

sufferers against United, now without Brian Deane (who scored Leeds'

very late equaliser at Manchester City).

Oldham and West Ham did nothing to dispel the notion that they will

both struggle, with emphatic defeats at home to Ipswich and Wimbledon

respectively -- Wimbledon rather spoiling the effect with their owner

Sam Hammam scrawling obscene graffiti on the dressing-room wall that was

designed, he said, to motivate his team.

The writing was supposed to be on the wall for Howard Kendall and

Everton following prolonged failure to sign a replacement for the

unwanted Mo Johnston. Midfielders Peter Beagrie and John Ebbrell earned

him breathing space with goals at Southampton.

One result leaped out from a series of close encounters in the first

division of what we must learn to call the Endsleigh League: Derby

County's 5-0 demolition of Sunderland, whose manager Terry Butcher said

''We were bloody awful.''

There were those at the Baseball Ground who felt that was a generous

assessment.