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Before this weekend's games, the consensus on this site 's seemed to be we were unlikely to be drawn into a relegation scrap again, either because of our own strengths or others' weaknesses. I think such judgements need to be a little more circumspect.

Our own team is extremely limited in all the ways endlessly recycled here. The teams immediately above us (West Ham, Fulham, Brentford, Man Utd) have better players, play better football and are highly unlikely to be drawn into a relegation battle. Below us, it might look comforting given that we have three clubs yet to win a game. However, it is early days and Ipswich and Wolves have been a little unlucky not to have picked up a win. Both have goals in them, but are weak defensively. Even Southampton have been playing better than their points tally indicates, though their lack of a goalscoring threat may doom them. Leicester, currently on the same points are probably at a similar level as us.

Where I have more optimism is in the incoming new owners, who, in my view, will want to make some early investments in the squad as a signal of intent, this should brighten prospects for thus second half of the season, but we have to pick up enough points in this half to remain competitive, especially before the run of December's difficult games.