Early season report of Arsenal and the rest of the premier league. Patterns emerging?? What can we expect for the rest of the season. The signing of the season and my predicted final league table. 

What a fantastic product the Premier League is. The season is only a few months old, but already we have had many great goals, controversies, end to end matches, players on great form and upsets "left right and centre" across the league. Some teams have surprised us both positively and negatively, and the same names are at the top once again. How is the season going to shape out? I expect the table by the end of the season to look very very similar at the top, as it did last year and many years before, but I do expect a number of teams to finish higher than expected, and some lower.

However let us start with The Arsenal, how have our team fared so far? I would say that we have had a strong start, but could do much better, and must look to do better. We must not forget that we have only lost one game so far this season, not a bad start at all, especially when you consider that Manchester United have lost twice. However some of our performances have not been convincing and despite being much more solid defensively on the whole this season to date, we are still far to weak at defensive set pieces, and our own loss this season, came as a direct of this problem. I am someone who believes massively in our team, in our club, in the infrastructure in this club, however if I could say one thing, it's that if we are to reach our potential and to win a cup or even the league this season we must not be vulnerable for set pieces. We have tightened up a lot in open play, we really don't look vulnerable when we don't have the ball anymore, and this is very pleasing indeed. I hope that we can maintain this, and of course, develop it some more. If we do this we have shown the signs of: character, technical quality, team spirit, goal scoring ability and strength, needed to be a very successful team indeed. If we continue to improve as we are, we will be up there at the end of the season and if we challenge this season and maintain this strength we can, I believe create a very strong dynasty once again, for our club. This has to be our ambition, we must look to continue to grow and improve this season and beyond. People said we would not survive without Van Persie and without Alex Song, well I tell this to them, we have and we will, and this will continue. Players like Carl Jenkinson I believe symbolise what our club symbolises, a determination to succeed and to come back from whatever criticism and stick we may get from wherever, he has been superb!

I am very proud of the way we have started this season, but as I said, I am aware that we must improve. We may not win the league this season, and to be honest we most probably won't. But if the start of the season is anything to go by, we have the strength, the talent and the ambition to prove people wrong and fight to get as close as we can, to the top. Perhaps win the FA Cup or Capital One cup along the way and go on a good run in the Champions League, and show that we mean business, and that we are not just "happy" to be in the Champions League.

But what about the rest of the league? When I watch teams other than the Arsenal play, I watch as simply a fan of the game, a fan of our league. I love watching it. There are a number of sides that I have been watching with great interest so far this season. Swansea had a great start, topped the league even for a while at least, Everton have played some fantastic football, beat Manchester United on their opening day, West Brom have played way above what anyone expected of them and are looking in great shape. However the likes of QPR have struggled. When a team spends big money on trying to develop a team, create a successful period for their club, to stave of the threat of relegation people take notice. That is exactly what QPR did, and I was expecting them to do well this year. However they simply have been awful. They sit at the bottom, unable to register 3 points, and Mark Hughes is rightly under huge pressure to turn it around. I do believe however that QPR's quality will come through and they will be safe, perhaps with Redknapp at the helm. Its been a similar story for Liverpool, they too struggled last season, of course higher than QPR but struggled nonetheless, and many expected (for some reason) them to be a lot better this season. Despite a demolition of Norwich and a brave performance against Manchester United, where they were very unlucky, they have not started well. Brendan Rodgers is however a very intelligent, young, dynamic manager and over the a number of seasons will probably rejuvenate the club. I believe that Norwich, Villa and Reading will be going down. The choice of Villa is probably a brave one, but I just can't see them picking up enough wins, and they look in trouble, they really do. Lambert did great at Norwich but I cant see the same occurring at Villa Park.

It is however sure going to be a very interesting season in the Barclays Premier League, I expect the top 4 to be the same as it was last year, but probably in a slightly different order, and I also expect one of the Manchester clubs to finish lower than expected, as I believe that there is a weakness in both teams. Manchester City however will probably go and buy more in January, so they are my favourites to win the league, and I expect us to continue to improve, and it may just be that without the expectation that the other "top 4" clubs have to succeed and the pressure that brings we will improve on last seasons' 3rd place finish.

This is what I think the Premier League table will look like, with the top 4 and the bottom 6 to be very very close in terms of points:

1. City
2. Arsenal (brave I know) COYG!
3. United
4. Chelsea - (started well but lack of options up front will hurt them)
5. Everton
6. Spurs
7. Newcastle
8. Liverpool
9. Fulham
10. West Brom
11. West Ham
12. Stoke
13. Sunderland
14. Swansea
15. QPR
16. Southampton
17. Wigan
18. Villa
19. Reading
20. Norwich.

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