Football: Talented trio a cause of concern for defenders: Phil Shaw on today's Premiership programme

IN THE coarser world of politics they would call it a triple whammy. The man who is arguably English football's most influential attacking player, plus its costliest striker and most prolific marksman are all set to join the Premiership fray in earnest for the first time this weekend.

Eric Cantona, Alan Shearer and Guy Whittingham: the playmaker, the powerhouse and the predator. It is a combination to make defenders look back wistfully on the fortnight in Florida which now passes for the close season. Mercifully, the trio will not be in tandem.

Shearer's absence has been the longest - it was early January when a knee injury curtailed the pounds 3.3m talisman's first Blackburn season after 22 goals in five months - and his need is also greatest. On Monday, Graham Taylor names the England squad for the World Cup qualifier against Poland at Wembley on 8 September. If Shearer does not start tomorrow's match at Newcastle, he is unlikely to be considered.

So far he has played barely half an hour as substitute, but reportedly finished strongly in a reserve match on Wednesday. Shearer also happens to be a Geordie, perhaps more at home at St James' Park than some of Kevin Keegan's side. But Kenny Dalglish is naturally cautious, and may be reluctant to split the productive partnership of Mike Newell and Kevin Gallacher even for Shearer.

Emboldened by Manchester United's dazzling start to the defence of their title, Alex Ferguson has stressed that Cantona will definitely play at Southampton today. The Frenchman missed the first four matches through injury, but proved his fitness for France against Sweden last Sunday, and Ferguson said: 'With the European Cup tie against Honved less than a fortnight away, it's vital that we get Eric back into match action.'

That means changing a winning team, but the United manager believes Cantona is too important to leave out. Besides, as his last days at Leeds showed, he is not one for going along to carry the kit hamper.

By Monday's victory at Aston Villa, United unwittingly advanced the claims of Whittingham, the former soldier who amassed 47 goals for Portsmouth last season. Ron Atkinson has hinted that Whittingham, with just 10 minutes as substitute and two reserve goals on Thursday behind him, will play a prominent part for Villa against Tottenham in a game which on paper promises another feast of football.

The England manager could do worse than call at Villa Park en route to Tyneside. Another strong showing by Spurs' Teddy Sheringham might negate the need to rush Shearer, while Earl Barrett deserved a run at right- back even before Lee Dixon or David Bardsley were injured.

Then there is Nigel Clough, who started England's last three matches and is in a rich vein of scoring form for Liverpool. All the signs point to Clough picking up a win bonus today: Leeds's last victory at Anfield was in 1972, since when Liverpool have outscored them by 21 goals to two in winning 11 of the 13 encounters, and the current side's last away win (23 matches ago) is beginning to seem equally sepia-tinted.

In the First Division, free-spending Wolves, third in the embryonic table, receive Middlesbrough, leaders with the only 100 per cent record in the top two sections. Meanwhile, 264 clubs, from Cornard United and Odd Down to Long Buckby and Brook House, hit the Wembley trail in the FA Cup preliminary round.

With Cantona and co out of town and his compatriot 'Ooh-Aah' Jean Michel Jarre already taking over City (if only, the anti-Swales lobby choruses) in readiness for Wednesday's concert, the tie between Maine Road and Maltby Miners' Welfare thus becomes Manchester's undisputed match of the day.