Some threshold has been crossed here. I have swapped Sunday football for Sunday futbol, and I hardly notice the difference.

Were we still in California I likely would have seen all of part of games like Denver at San Diego and Dallas at New Orleans.

Instead?

One long afternoon and evening of the Premier League.

(I had the day off; rare not to work a Sunday.)

Tottenham v Newcastle, Sunderland v Manchester City, Manchester United v Arsenal.

(And I list those in the European/Fifa style — home teams first, not second.)

What’s more, I knew more than a little about every team involved. Which is a bit alarming, if I sit and ponder it.

But that comes from four years of reading about these teams and people, and “taking on board” (listening; paying attention to) some facts, perhaps processed through an American prism.

So, to recap:

–Tottenham v Newcastle. The former is a team with some adherents, back in the states. Never took to them, though. It could be because (the) Spurs have too many fans at The National.

I can’t really tell you what Tottenham is about, other than being the traditional favorite of London’s Jewish population. They haven’t won much of anything, I don’t know what they are trying to accomplish, and letting Gareth Bale go to Real Madrid pretty clearly has stripped them of their only attacking player of any consequence.

Their coach, Andre Villas-Boas, is “Jose Mourinho light”, the disciple, not the Special One.

Newcastle? I think of a couple things: A preference for hiring French-speaking Africans who are then cheered by Geordies who hardly speak British English. Or any English the rest of the planet’s English-speakers speak.

So, not overfond of Tottenham, have no strong opinion about Newcastle, so I defaulted to my native internal setting — when in doubt, root for the underdog. The Premier League has been far, far too formful, these many years, and Newcastle winning at White Hart Lane most certainly is an upset. And Newcastle won, 1-0.

–Next up, Sunderland at home against Man City. We are meant to love Man City, here in Abu Dhabi, the club being owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, the half-brother of the UAE’s president. But can’t do it. Can’t bring myself to like them, let alone love them. They remind me of the Clippers; the poseurs next to the serious team in their hometown.

Sunderland, meanwhile, is a sad crew, winless until two weekends ago, when they beat Newcastle in a northeast derby. They started the season with Paulo Di Canio as their coach, and he may be more than a little mad and a martinet, as well (OK, and maybe a fascist), who banned ketchup from the training table for having too much sugar.

His players apparently hated him, and after five games and one point Di Canio was fired, and hired some odd little Uruguayan named Gus Poyet, whose face is mostly ears and who is trying to revive the team. (And one of several Premier League coaches whose grasp of English is tenuous.)

Sunderland got an early goal, City dominated the rest of the game but could not score. Sunderland 1-0, and City, marked down for a top-four finish and probably a championship, now have four points of a possible 18 on the road.

–And then the main event, “the biggest game so far this season”, the Al Jazeera English-speaking pundit said: United v Arsenal.

The game was big because United had a rocky start under a new coach, David Moyes (replacing Alex Ferguson, the Tom Landry of the Premier League), and Arsenal is the surprise first-place team, and if Arsenal could win on the road, United would be 11 points back.

As a quasi/semi/recent/tepid Arsenal fan, I knew very well this game would not be won, not in Old Trafford, and United got a goal in the 27th minute when Robin van Persie, one of several outstanding players Arsenal allowed to leave, in recent years, scored on a header off a corner as Arsenal was using zone defense — a bad idea when Van Persie is playing for the opposition.

Arsenal was much sharper in the second half, holding the ball, knocking it around, as they do, getting a couple of decent chances but never putting one in, and the Gunners became the last team in the league to be shut out, 1-0.

So, this went on from, like, 4 p.m. till about 10 p.m.  (One upside of being a futbol fan is that you can see three games in the time needed to watch only two NFL games.)

Another reason for watching, is this: The Premier League is tighter, 11 games in, than at any time since I have been in the UAE. Eight teams are within six points at the top of the standings, including Southampton and Everton, and all six of the teams that aspired to a Champions League (top-four) finish, at the start of the season.

And all the big clubs have lost to (what is inevitably called) a minnow, which is refreshing.

Actually, this hint of parity — of bad teams being able to beat good teams — reminds me a bit of the NFL, the league I formerly followed, particularly in my youth.

It is highly likely that four of these six — Chelsea, United, Arsenal, City, Liverpool, Tottenham — will finish in the top four.

Which we knew back in August, but have been able to deny, sorta, so far. And certainly on this Sunday.