Arsene Wenger has admitted that he did not foresee his Arsenal side sitting at the top of the Premier League after 10 games of the season.
The Gunners moved to the summit with a 2-1 victory over Everton on Saturday evening as goals from Olivier Giroud and Laurent Koscielny made it seven wins out of 10 for the North London club this season.
However, Wenger said that Manchester City's early form had him fearing that it would take far longer for his side to be able to launch a serious title bid and praised his side for the way that they have made up the ground with four wins in a row.
Asked if he expected Arsenal to be in this position at this stage, he told talkSPORT: "I thought after 10 games, no, honestly.
"I thought that it would take much longer because Manchester City started with five wins, so it was difficult to envisage that we would come back but we had no choice. I am pleased because we had a very difficult start.
"After a difficult game against West Ham nobody would have predicted that we would have been at the top after 10 games. But we are there, that shows we have made some ground up. It is very early in the season but we are happy to be where we are."
Arsenal next face a trip to Sheffield Wednesday in the League Cup fourth round on Tuesday night.