Reason to Believe

Bolton 1-3 Arsenal

Chelsea 1-1 Manchester United

Liverpool 0-0 Stoke City

Well well well. Eboue, Bendtner, Denilson, and we're top of the table. Eboue! I thought the goals were great, but the scoreline is a little misleading -- we played well without playing great. We really, really do need to work on our defense.

That said, Bendtner was good. I can't figure Denilson out -- so far this season, he has played the range of terrible to okay but then manages to score. Cesc was Cesc and Ade was Ade. Gallas, oy. I do like Kolo Toure though. Theo was good when he came on, and should have come on earlier. I always wonder if AW waits until the last third so he can wear out the defense with his fresh legs and pace. The run he made that led to the goal was pretty amazing -- how many white shirts did he leave behind? Six?

I had to watch the game on Sunday night, but it was great -- I opened a very nice bottle of French wine, and since I knew we won, sat back and enjoyed. I was disappointed RVP didn't play, but I guess we need to protect his legs against teams like Bolton, especially when we've got Bendtner -- who's what -- 6'5"? I'm really looking forward to having Nasri back, and I'm curious to see what this guy Silvestre is made of.

Fulham aside, I think we look better this season. Granted, the start of the season has been pretty easy -- no Aston Villas -- but it seemed to me that last season (and the one before that) our game tended to sink to the level of our opponents' -- see Sunderland. This year it seems like we're more...what? Ruthless? Whatever it is, I like it. I like the goals, I like the confidence, I like the beauty, I like it all. Still, it's early, very early.

Now watch us fall to Hull City.