Every year I'm eager for us to get our business before the opening day (rather than 31 August). But probably never more so that this summer. We really could not have asked for a nicer opening 11 fixtures. Only one fixture against a side who finished above us last season (and of those potential 14 different options, at home to Man Utd is certainly not the hardest). And, in all likelihood, seven of those 11 at home (I would very much imagine that they'll simply swap the West Ham games around, thereby giving us those seven).
Shout me down if you want, but quite simply we should be in the top four after 11 games. Only if four other sides have cracking starts themselves should we be outside. A two point average should be a minimum, but ideally I'd be looking for 25 or 26 points.
As Leicester proved the season before last; as we proved in the Championship promotion season, once you get on a roll early, and confidence is flowing throughout the team, then wonderful things can happen. I'm not trying to imply a title charge, no way. But the only way of keeping our players is to get into the CL, and who knows, if we can get those 11 fixtures right then we might give ourselves a real chance. Especially whilst we have no European to distract, yet Chelsea and Liverpool do.