MANCHESTER, England -- With his headteacher aura and astute offseason recruitment, Ronald Koeman is making an immediate impact at Everton and getting the best out of the clubs strongest squad in a generation.It might be time for the blue half of Merseyside to start dreaming again, three decades after its trophy-laden heyday.Koeman, a highly respected ex-Netherlands and Barcelona defender, was lured from Southampton in June and has guided Everton to its best five-game start to a league campaign in 38 years. With a draw and four consecutive wins, Everton is in second place, behind Manchester City, in the English Premier League standings going into a game at 17th-place Bournemouth on Saturday.English football is already looking for the next team to do a Leicester and rise from nowhere to win the Premier League. Maybe its Evertons turn, although Koeman has warned against any comparisons with the current champions.Normally, we cant win the title. I think what Leicester did last season was an exception, Koeman said. I am realistic. If I tell you we will fight for the title, I think most people will say, `That man is crazy.That winning the title is even in the conversation around Goodison Park is testament to work being done by Koeman, who appears to be at a club going places after its disappointing 11th-place finish last season.Ambition has soared at Everton since Iranian-British businessman Farhad Moshiri became its majority shareholder in February. With greater financial power under Moshiri, Everton spent around $50 million on explosive winger Yannick Bolasie and Wales captain Ashley Williams in August, and almost broke its club record to sign Moussa Sissoko on deadline day before the France midfielder had a late change of heart and joined Tottenham.To top it all off, Koeman looks to be the real deal after replacing Roberto Martinez, fired in May after running out of ideas and patience among fans after three years in charge.Standards have suddenly risen at Everton. While the relaxed Martinez used overstatements and cringeworthy hyperbole to laud underperforming players, Koeman has no issue in calling out players whose level drops. Rising star Ross Barkley was substituted at halftime in one match this season, for example.Yes, there is a fear, definitely, Everton captain Phil Jagielka said. It is like being back at school with a new headteacher who is trying to be a little bit stricter.Gareth Barry, Evertons 35-year-old midfielder, has opened up about the difference between the Martinez and Koeman regimes.The standards of the players were, for me, slightly slipping last season, on and off the pitch, Barry said. It was things like time-keeping, dress codes, training, everything really.The confidence and everything had gone.Now its back.Everton has beaten West Bromwich Albion, Stoke, Sunderland and Middlesbrough after opening with a draw against Tottenham, and the team looks stronger in every department. A leaky defense seems tighter with the presence of Williams at center back and energetic midfielder Idrissa Gueye -- another summer signing -- just in front, while Romelu Lukaku has returned to form with four goals in his last two games and, when at his best, is among the Premier Leagues most dangerous and prolific strikers.The heavyweight teams lie in wait for Koemans side -- first-place Manchester City hosts Everton on Oct. 15, the first weekend after the upcoming break for internationals -- but suddenly theres a buzz around one of Englands most established top-flight clubs.Before Alex Ferguson arrived at Old Trafford in 1986, Everton had been English champions more often than Manchester United, winning eight titles to Uniteds seven, and was the countrys major power alongside Merseyside rival Liverpool.Theres been no silverware since the fifth of Evertons FA Cup titles in 1995, but that may be about to change under Koeman.Here are some other things to look out for this weekend:---PERFECT CITYSwansea is getting a second opportunity to end Manchester Citys perfect start to the season.City made it nine wins from nine matches in all competitions by beating Swansea 2-1 in the English League Cup on Wednesday, and the teams meet again in Wales on Saturday, this time in the league.It will only get harder for the Swans: Sergio Aguero is available again after a three-game domestic suspension.---JANSSENS CHANCEIts time for Vincent Janssen to prove theres life after Harry Kane at Tottenham.With Kane potentially out for two months with an ankle injury, Janssen should get an extended run with the team for the first time since his offseason move from AZ Alkmaar.The Netherlands international scored his first goal for Tottenham in the 5-0 win over Gillingham in the League Cup on Wednesday and will lead the line at Middlesbrough on Saturday. 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"I wrote 36 on my sheet at the beginning of the game," the Cincinnati coach said, referring the yard line the ball would need to be snapped from. Woh joh paanch chhalle hote hain, woh bade saubhagya se milte hain (those five rings are reserved for a few fortunate ones), says Nitendra Singh Rawat, who will make up Indias first three-member mens marathon contingent at the Olympics in 56 years. Rawat will be competing alongside Gopi T and Kheta Ram at the Rio games and said ever since his qualification, I have felt an inner motivation, and my desire to work harder has also increased. I feel I must do something good, since I am going to represent my country there.A Havaldar with the Kumaon Regiment of the Indian army, Rawat was the first of the three Indians to qualify for Rio, at the 2015 World Military Games in Mungyeong, Korea in October 2015. His eighth-place finish came with a timing of 2h 18m 6s, well within the qualification mark of 2h 19m.The turning point for Rawats athletic career came when he represented India for the first time in March 2013 at a half-marathon in Korea, coming within seven seconds of the national record.For Rawat, the mark to aim for now in Rio is Shivnath Singhs 38-year-old national record for the marathon: 2h 12m, set in 1978. Shivnath also holds Indias personal best at the Olympics, where he finished 11th at the Montreal games in 1976. Rawat knows those numbers. After securing qualification for Rio in South Korea, Rawat notched up victories in the Delhi half-marathon in November 2015 and the Mumbai marathon in January 2016 -- setting an Indian course record of 2h 15m 48s in the latter -- before picking up the marathon gold at the South Asian Games in Guwahati in February, where he clocked 2h 15m 18s.Rupinder Singh, former national level middle-distance runner and athletics coach, considers Rawat one of the more consistent runners to have emerged from the Services. Hes a Physics graduate, which gives him a better insight into how to prepare. He trains the same way as the other marathoners, but he knows what is required to improve on his own performances, says Rupinder.Rawat grew up in Garur, a town in the Bageshwar district of Uttarakhand. Rawat played a lot of sport as a child, with hockey being his favourite through school. Iss desh mein cricket toh har koi khelta hai (In India, everybody plays cricket at some stage), he adds with a laugh.It wasnt until Rawat joined the Army that he took a liking to running long distances, though his initial distance of choice would be 5000 metres. It helped that if your name came up for a division-level meet, then you would get a vacation for 15 days to recover, Rawat says with a characteristic smile.ddddddddddddRupinder believes that Rawat could and should aim higher at the Olympics. Rio will be tough for our runners, because by and large, they have been clocking in excess of 2h 12m, whereas in Rio, I would expect the best runners to get close to 2h 7m and 2h 10m. The fact that Indian marathoners havent had more success internationally is quite surprising, says Rupinder.The national record was set by Shivnath Singh while running barefoot in Jalandhar in 1978.A discernible lack of ambition among Indian long-distance runners is the root cause for the lack of international medals says Rupinder, while highlighting how opportunities for them have increased within India.Though India have hosted so many marathons in the last few years, the focus is not on improving timing or encouraging younger marathoners. Theres so much of a hardsell to the corporates, thats theres often no incentive to improve on a best timing. Athletics is actually a sport where you can keep rewards much more quantifiable, so that young runners strive to improve their personal best. No doubt, there have been more rewards and more participation, but we still have a long way to go, says Rupinder.Nobody can blame Rawat for lack of ambition, or pragmatism, though. If I hadnt been a marathoner, I would have been running perhaps at the National championship. But I wouldnt have had the aim of doing something for my country, says Rawat. I had a limitation in the 5000m - I could have gone till Asian level, but not till a world level. I say this because I was aware of my speeds. I am what I am because of marathon.Massively inspired by Abhinav Bindras personalised message to all Olympians, and keen to rub shoulders with his track and field heroes including Haile Gebresselasie, Mo Farah and Usain Bolt in Rio, Rawat, whose favourite film Mohabbatein is a fair indication of his fondness for Hindi movies, signs off with a line that would not be out of place in a Bollywood potboiler.Jaise bola jaata hai dawaon se duayein zyaada kaam karti hain (they say prayers work better than medicines), so I would urge my countrymen that they should pray - not just for me but for each and every member of the Olympic contingent. Pray for us so that we can get more and more medals back for the nation. ' ' '