by Darren Douglas

Created on: September 18, 2009   Last Updated: September 20, 2009

The new season may only be six fixtures old, but the 2009-10 Eredivisie is already taking shape and is promising to produce a highly competitive campaign. Judging by how the season has gone so far, last season's champions and runners-up (AZ Alkmaar and FC Twente) will face sterner opposition this time around, and not just from Ajax. Both Feyenoord and PSV have had flying starts and the early signs are that both clubs have the potential to reclaim past glories.

Feyenoord, although classed as one of the big three teams in the Netherlands, are now in their 11th season since they last claimed the title. Recent years have been blighted by financial worries and the selling-off of their star players, as well as being disciplined by Uefa over hooliganism.

Mario Been was officially installed as the new manager during the summer, coming full circle after having spent the majority of his playing career at the club. So far he has had a positive effect, especially when compared with last season when Feyenoord finished a lowly 7th in the table. Feyenoord are unbeaten after the first 6 games and veteran players are a strong characteristic of the squad.

The presence of the prolific Roy Makaay is crucial, but so far this campaign has all been about Jon Dahl Tomasson and Jonathan de Guzmn, both are scoring goals regularly. Today was no different as Feyenoord negotiated a 3-2 away win over Willem II, with Tomasson grabbing a brace and de Guzmn the winner. Meanwhile Willem II have 1 win and 5 defeats to show from the opening 6 league matches.

PSV Eindhoven are also unbeaten up to this point, since drawing their opening 2 Eredivisie fixtures they have gone on to win their next four in a row. Culminating in last Saturday's comprehensive home defeat of Roda JC, 3-0. Just as with Feyenoord it seems that PSV have been galvanised by the presence of a new manager.

Fred Rutten is the new man at the helm and like PSV he too is looking to re-establish himself after a setback last season. Rutten was Steve McClaren's predecessor at FC Twente and his success there had led to him being appointed as FC Schalke 04's manager last term. Things did not turn out well for him though and he was eventually sacked before completing his first campaign.

Back in Eindhoven the magic is returning for Rutten, although they have been blessed with a fixture list that has lined up a selection of the league's weaker teams to start with. The biggest test they have faced so far was travelling away to FC Twente about a

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