Back in action

The return of domestic football seems a good time to dust off the keyboard and get back to blogging.

Since my last post we've seen downs and ups and performances of vary degrees of quality but overall the trajectory of the team has continued to be upward. The lowest point was the performance against Chelsea. We still had good chances to get an equaliser but there was a clear lack of belief among the Arsenal that they were good enough to beat the league leaders.

The high point was the Man City game. Not only did we outplay the champions for a good proportion of the match but I watched it in the company of the Bay Area Gooners in a San Francisco pub, my first 8am kick off. They got behind the boys from first minute to last and the atmosphere after Koscielny's goal was better than the Emirates. Fair play to them.

There is a good vibe around the side at the moment. It is amazing what a few wins will do to confidence but more than that the players seem more up for the fight this season.

Is it the Bouldy effect or just being able to call on better quality players like Podolski and Cazorla? Most likely a combination of the two, plus the clear improvement of players now in the second season like Gervinho, Jenkinson and the BFG.

But they say you should only start to judge a season after 10 games and that will feel about right for this Arsenal. As encouraging as things have been, we still sit seventh, seven points off Chelsea who admittedly have probably over-achieved in accruing 19 points.

The next three league games - Norwich away, QPR home and Man U away - are all winnable. Seven points or nine, giving us 19 or 21 after 10, would be a great foundation to build from; continue the form and we'd have 72 to 79 points come May 19. We'd probably need more to win the league which means we'd need to get better still to challenge. It looks a tall order given the size of the squad but let's give ourselves a chance - let's beat Norwich.