I am just waiting for those who have been insanely critical of our team, players and manager to slowly start taking notice about what Wenger is creating. It will not be long before the media, pundits and a section of fans to start jumping on the bandwagon

The first weekend of the 2009/2010 season has been played, a chance for fans and pundits to see what kind of shape their clubs are in. Many will be looking closely at last seasons ‘big four’ as well as Manchester City, the club that have been predicted to replace Arsenal in the Champions League positions.

Chelsea were first up in the Saturday early kick off against last seasons strugglers Hull City at Stamford Bridge. Carlo Ancelotti would have thanked his lucky stars when he read through the fixture list for the first time. Hull City at home is a nice way to ease yourself into Premier League life.

Hull City took the lead, much to the surprise of the Chelsea faithful. Drogba got Chelsea back on track with a superb free kick. Drogba fluked a goal in injury time. Had he been played in on the right hand side of the penalty area he would have crossed the ball more accurately, instead his left foot cross spooned over the keeper and into the far corner of the net, the only place that he could have scored.

It was a far from convincing display from the Chelsea side. They are still a very methodical and strong team. Full of experienced players who know the game, know how to grind out results. They will bang loudly on the door of opposition teams until the force their way in but they are losing the art of picking locks.

I expect Chelsea to struggle at times this season against teams who park the bus, teams who deny them space and time. I wouldn’t be surprised to see many 1-1 draws at Stamford Bridge this season.

Manchester United kicked off their campaign with a victory at Old Trafford against newly promoted Birmingham City. I was interested to see how they would cope without the best player in the world and Carlos Tevez. Rooney scored the winner from close range and had a few long range strikes throughout the game that either fizzed wide or were well saved.

Rooney and Berbatov are two fine players but I do not see how they compliment each other, I could be very wrong because talented players often find ways to develop a partnership. Manchester United will still have a good unit, a good team ethic and Rooney will win games for them but without the individual brilliance from Cristiano Ronaldo I think they will lose many goals over the course of the season.

Manchester United have a few injuries that they have to deal with which makes a nice change. Suddenly they have a young bench, they are just lucky that they have been given a pretty satisfactory start to the Premier League.

Liverpool were beaten at White Hart Lane to Tottenham in a controversial game. Goal scorer Assou-Ekotto handled inside his penalty area but the decision didn’t go Rafa’s way. Gerrard scored from the spot but Sebastien Bassong headed the winner on the hour.

Liverpool will miss the creative passing of Xabi Alonso and will have to rely heavily on captain Steven Gerrard and Spaniard Fernando Torres.

You cannot make a solid judgement about a squad after the first game of the season but from what I have witnessed, Arsenal have nothing to fear from the other challenging sides. Without doubt, even after removing my red tinted glasses, our display was by far the best compared to that of our rivals.

I worried about playing Manchester United and Manchester City so early in the season but it may just be the right time to play these teams.

Many of our players were written off last season, even though they were not the finished article, this is why I am so pleased for the likes of Alex Song and Nicklas Bendtner who both gave fantastic performances at Goodison park.

I am just waiting for those who have been insanely critical of our team, players and manager to slowly start taking notice about what Wenger is creating. It will not be long before the media, pundits and a section of fans to start jumping on the bandwagon.

Believe me, it will happen and when it does there will be no mention about how wrong many have been about the likes of Song, Denilson and Bendtner. Wrong to write off Wenger using the new formation, wrong about the lack of English players.

Do not get me wrong, I am not saying that we are going to win the league because of one result, that would be foolish. I am not saying that Liverpool are rubbish because of one result, that equally would be foolish. I am talking up Arsenal because I can see how good our team can become once we gel, once the younger players start growing and improving, once the team start defending as a team and when the team lose compliancy from their game.

The signs were up in lights on Saturday.