Nineteen games, fifteen wins, four draw, no losses.
Quite an impressive start, really.
But I think we should be very careful over what this leads us to believe, and even more wary about how the media are interpreting this quite frankly astonishing opening to the season.
Before the season began, we were written off – absolutely caned by the press who almost to a man predicted we’d be out of the top four. I said at the time that it was complete garbage and stuck to it. Now, of course, with everything going so well and the papers seemingly needing to see everything in black and white, we are champions in waiting, the ‘new invincibles’.
It is a phrase I do not like. And it is a burden I think the players do not need. Wenger spoke earlier in the season about being surprised at the speed of improvement from last season to this. He expected it to happen, but not this quickly. Now some may think he was simply trying to take the pressure off the team, but I think he was being genuine.
I imagine he thought Cesc would score ten this season. Not by the end of October. I imagine he predicted an improvement in Hleb, but not by this margin, and I doubt even Wenger himself could’ve foreseen how Flamini would make a spot in the congested centre of midfield his own.
There is no doubt in my mind that Wenger knew he was building something special, but for it to come to fruition so early has been nothing more than a wonderful bonus. We are still not favourites for the league, which is quite right given how ominous United look and how experienced they are.
But this side will improve. Whatever happens this season, good or bad, will take their knowledge of the game further, and make them stronger yet for the next challenge, which is where Wenger perhaps envisaged trophies.
Of course it would be a disappointment to fall away after such an amazing start. But what I am saying is this – if things starts to go badly, do not react how the media will, by writing the club off. Take how you feel now about this growing side, and stick with that faith. They are going in the right direction.
There will be blows along the way. But we can take them. We are Arsenal.
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