Watching Match of the Day late Saturday evening, I was struck by how the pundits on the sofa with Gary Linekar were praising the promoted clubs, Bournemouth Norwich and Watford, for their respective seasons so far and even their performances in their games on that day.

The first part was not particularly surprising as both have looked reasonable sides, but I was shocked by the how the panel ignored some of the frankly woeful defending on show in their games.

Bournemouth lost 5-1 against Manchester City, mostly due to lamentable defensive organisation, while Watford suddenly imploded during 15 second half minutes against Arsenal, during which they shipped three goals and could have leaked far more. Norwich saved the worst until last, as they conceded six against a Newcastle side without a win up until then on Sunday.

The argument seemed to be that these were games they would have expected to lose, that anything more than a defeat would have been a bonus and that their survival will be decided in games against fellow relegation rivals at home. I don’t necessarily agree with this, because fundamentally bad defending is not generally something that happens one game out of two.

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If the basics aren’t right, these promoted sides will continually be exposed by sides all through the league, not just the big boys away. Many will recall that Bournemouth dominated their first game of the season against Aston Villa at home, but lost due to slack marking against Rudy Gestede on a cross.

Plenty of onlooking neutrals felt sorry for them then, but there is simply no excuse for the kind of defending that leaves Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher sighing and spluttering on Monday Night Football. All of Manchester City's goals on Saturday were thoroughly preventable, with terrible individual mistakes combining with reckless attacking and poor positional play to complete the perfect storm.

Adam Federici, Steve Cook and Charlie Daniels et al may have cut it in the Championship, but this is a whole new level, where most mistakes will be punished.

It was no better for Watford, even though they did match Arsenal for long periods in the first half. This if anything makes it worse, since it makes their subsequent implosion early in the second period even worse. The three goals for the Gunners were all equally as bad as anything at the Etihad, with defenders being scattered here and there, no organisation and leadership at the back visible in that period where the damage was done. All three goalscorers were left in oceans of space for their goals, while the positional play of the back four was also highly suspect.

Norwich simply went too gung ho against the Geordies and paid the price, as chasing the game from a position of 3-2 down inevitably led to goals four, five and six. Newcastle, of course, were highly impressive going forward, and their play certainly had more purpose in it than at any other time this season. However, this should not be used as an excuse by the Norwich defence, who have actually looked half decent in the games up until now.

I am not attempting to denigrate the fabulous work that Eddie Howe and Alec Neill have done at Bournemouth and Norwich here, nor indeed the way Quique Sanchez Flores has stepped into the hot seat at Vicarage Road and looked utterly at home.

What I am however suggesting is that the same occasionally lazy, sloppy defending that all these sides were able to indulge in in the Championship (Bournemouth threw away 28 points from winning positions last season and still won the league), simply will not do at this level.

Unless the Cherries want to be plucked, the Hornets have their sting removed and the Canaries silenced for ever, their defences need to tighten up - and fast.

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