11 games gone - are you happy with our start?

[Joe Le Toff]

From a start that promised so much in terms of the squad that we have and the football we were playing, i have to be honest and say that i am bitterly disappointed with the way things are panning out and my expectations are lowering by the game.

[Pablo]

League: Slightly disappointed but only because I had high expectations and we had an easy start to the season on paper. Hopefully we can make up the ground over the next few seemingly tougher fixtures. Massive few matches coming up that will shape our aspirations for the season.

CL: Very disappointed, we need some good wins in a row now to pull ourselves back into a position to qualify.

[dom9]

If we win at Goodison and beat Arsenal at home then things should start to look a bit rosier but both matches are no gimme's and we'll have to be at our very best.

If we do that, everybody will get overexcited again (remember the Derby game), and they'll be convinced we'll win the league.

[JohnDoe]

I think we've done okay in the league, what I hoped for is improvements in our performances in the league and we certainly did better than last season.

Reminder of our first 8 games last season.

Sheffield Away 1-1
West Ham home 2-1
Everton away 0-3
Chelsea away 0-1
Newcastle home 2-0
Spurs home 3-0
Bolton away 0-2
Blackburn home 1-1

Even if you consider that our run of games has been a bit easier than this one, it's still a very poor record of 11 points out of 8 games.

Teams will be more difficult to beat, Mancs will drop more points and Arsenal's run will not last forever. If we pick ourselves up like we always do mid-way through the season, I can see us making big progress.

[calvoboy]

Yep - reasonably happy. Though not with the recent dip in form.

I only care about the league this year, and we are averaging 2 points a game (= on course for 76 for the season). If we keep going at 2 points a game until Christmas then we'll be well in contention, and if rotation is supposed to do anything then it is supposed to leave us prepared for a surge in the second half of the season.

So happy with the start, but we need to pick up in terms of form. Beating the bitters and Arsenal would leave us in a great position to challenge.

[alunevans]

It's not as bad as some would have you think, we are poor starters and this season, in comparison to previous, has been a decent start. Ok we could have done better, esp against Brum, but we are still within touching distance of Arsenal, we play them in 3 weeks, who knows they could lose their next game, lose to us and drop points against the mancs. If we beat the bitters and the Arsenal suddenly life is a lot more rosier.

As for the CL, i think we can still qualify, doesnt matter if we are first or second as wherever you finish you'll have to playt a big team.

We are poor starters but thats not good enough. We shouldn't accept that we're poor starters unless we only want to win cups.

Its great to finish strongly if you're a cup team.

But in the league, its 3 points for a win before Christmas as well as after.

Overall I'm not very happy at all. The team seems utterly gutless at the moment and that's probably the most worrying thing of all.

[alunevans]

I think the Arsenal game could now make or break our season. We win and we're 3 points behind them, we lose and we're 9 points off, which is the number of points we've gotten from our last 5 league games.

good shout. if we beat them the mood will be lifted hugely around here. i just sense something deeper is amiss with us at the moment. team spirit. dressing room unity.

i've nothing to back that up with other than i don't see the players fighting for each other on the pitch, which is often a sign of that.

i