Blue moon, you saw me standing alone in first place

It's way, way too early to get too excited - especially with the wins coming over a newly-promoted Derby, a nearly-relegated West Ham, and a United team that was merely missing its two best players. But nine points from three games - and no goals allowed yet - is a pretty exciting start to the season, especially leaving City as it does alone in first, two points clear of Chelsea. The new players seem to be fitting together pretty well, and Schmeichel is performing capably, though of course the real star is Micah Richards, as anyone could have predicted.

The next three games will tell the story: at Arsenal, at Bristol City in the Carling Cup, at Blackburn. City rarely beat Arsenal, never beat Blackburn, and have struggled in the Carling recently, bowing out to much lesser opposition than Bristol, a Championship team, in each of the last two seasons. If City can get through September with no more than one loss - and the post-Blackburn games are Aston Villa, at Fulham, and Newcastle, so the possibility exists - then I may start getting very excited. For now it's just nice to see a fast start - of course, 2005/06 started similarly - D-W-W-W-D, the last draw an inspiring hold at Old Trafford - and then collapsed following the debacle at Doncaster. Fingers crossed that Sven doesn't repeat the same freefall to 15th in the table that that team had. (I'm guessing not, if only because of the available funds that didn't exist in 2005.)