"I was thrilled to be on the bench today," Benny Feilhaber told Derby County FC's website. "This is a dream come true."

I love the early season for many reasons. Unlikely clubs rise to the top of the league, big guns e.g. Manchester United, wear the dunce hat for a short yet glorious spell and everyone is full of hope that this campaign, more than ever before, could be our year.

For all the diligent analysis and earnest punditry that accompanies the game, you would think soccer followers were of sound mind, honest and logical to a T. As if! Football fans are crazy, drunk with blind faith in the invisible. It never ceases to amaze me, not just that rationality is routinely suspended when it comes to the Beautiful Game, but that we adamantly insist that is not the case.

A mass delusion engulfs the world of fandom at this time of year, before slowly fading away as the season progresses. It has not taken long for the Sheffield Wednesday dream to crack for instance – Frank Simek's team entered the Championship race understandably confident of ascending and look at them now - rock bottom after two comprehensive maulings.

Jay DeMerit must be feeling the opposite as Watford have sailed to the top of that division with the greatest of ease and can feel confident about making it back to the Premier League. But that is what all the players thought and said pre-season. They, and this goes for fans and coaches too, ALL said they expected to get promoted or finish top five/ten/qualify for Europe etc, which is crazy.

For now, the trains to dreamland are still on the tracks, but have begun to wobble. Tim Howard was top of the Premier League for a short time last week (has that happened to an American before?), filling Everton fans with absurd hope, before another Yank keeper Marcus Hahnemann kept the Toffees at bay and sent them tumbling off the summit.

Reading are looking rather tasty in my opinion, defying the second-season syndrome for recently promoted clubs. Their mid-table standing can be safely attributed to having had to face Chelsea and Manchester United in their opening two contests, a fixture list that must have had all at the Madejski laughing aloud when it was announced.

The Royals are still a very organised outfit, continuing the neat passing game that has served them so well, and have a squad united behind coach Steve Coppell.

Would that the same could be said of West Ham. The hacks' knives were out for Alan Curbishley as soon as the final whistle had blown of the Hammers' opening day reverse to Manchester City.

Then Paul Konchesky, a Curbishley pupil at both Charlton and West Ham, drove the knife in with a tabloid tirade at his old boss, alleging he had old-fashioned tactics and that the players had no confidence in him. Curbs' signings do seem a little curious and rather top-heavy upfront, recruiting a string of 'bad-boy' attacking players – Craig Bellamy, Kieron Dyer, Luis Boa Morte and Lee Bowyer, all of whom have clashed abrasively with their managers before.

But before the boatload of cockney reprobates could set sail for Australia, the boys done brilliant and won at Birmingham, while Manchester City's 3 and 0 tally and scalping of United made the Hammers' loss to them seem less serious.

Derby's Americans have far more to worry about than Jonathan Spector. Oh to have been in Benny Feilhaber's head as Spurs rattled in three goals against his new employers in the first quarter hour at White Hart Lane. Eddie Lewis must be glad to have finally jumped the sinking Leeds ship and be reunited with his Preston boss Billy Davies, but is well aware this could be his last season in the top flight.

But if you were in search of proof of the craziness about you at this premature stage of the season, look no further than Craven Cottage. Despite wearing a Nike uniform, FC America seems more FC Northern Ireland these days and the Welsh baritone of Chris Coleman is nowhere to be heard, but the three Fulham Yanks all had their share of madness on Saturday.

Clint Dempsey contrived to slot wide of an almost open goal to kill the game late on, described by a BBC radio commentator as "the miss of the season," while his TV colleague Alan Hansen, a Liverpool defensive great who never tires of reminding us of the fact, described Carlos Bocanegra as "writing a book on how not to defend." As if the gods did have it in for the Americans, Brian McBride collapsed in agony after scoring and was stretchered off with a dislocated knee.

Bake's stroke of dreadful misfortune seemed slightly surreal given he had just put Fulham ahead and was unchallenged at the time, but more so because it was early in the season in a still unfamiliar team.

To complete the curse on the Cottagers, Tony Warner dropped a clanger worthy of his goalkeeping coach Dave Beasant to give Middlesbrough the equalizer, Hameur Bouazza joined McBride in the dislocation club, David Healy then had a blatantly good goal disallowed before Boro stole victory from a game by rights they should never have won.

Don't worry, the storm will pass soon. McBride will be back before long, West Ham will stumble along again but be all right, Sheffield Wednesday will move up the table and Feilhaber and Lewis will settle down into a hopeless fight against relegation, as expected. Reading and Everton will challenge for those last UEFA Cup places and the Hornets will hover around the promotion/playoff places in the Championship.

It is not an unusual campaign by any means. Reality bites sometime in the Fall. Early on however, the soccer season is awash with possibilities and dreams. For a few fleeting weekends, life in the madhouse is kinda fun.