Just so we can have a nice day, I'm going to start the post in a place that should mean we'll have to end the post feeling optimistic. We're even going to be looking forward to Everton on October 18th in five minutes.
But before we get into anything you have to first accept we were not supposed to win yesterday. Accept that and we're all fine. And yes, you can easily argue that we should be competing, but at this precise moment in time, we weren't supposed to.
But this is the third season for Paul Lambert. He's brought in over twenty players, let some of them and others go, changed the coaching staff and even brought back players that we thought would never play for the club again.
And even though for a long time he had a CEO that hindered him (and who told you about that), it shouldn't have been enough to completely break the man. And it didn't. But we were never supposed to win yesterday.
But we're supposed to win the next two.
Football looks better
And while the football 'looks' better it doesn't become great overnight. We've moved in the right direction and for a large part of yesterday, we went toe to toe with Manchester City. Even if we only created one real opportunity on goal.
And while Alan Shearer said that Manchester City made mistakes, I think it's because we played the right way. I think we're making progress, but to think we were going to play the top four from last season and compete would have been naive.
But we picked up three points from the past four and in fairness that isn't too bad. It could have been worse. And we picked up points against other sides this season too. We have to hope it continues for Everton and QPR because these are the two matches that will actually tell us if the football truly is getting better.
We basically have a great excuse for yesterday, for Chelsea and Arsenal. There are no excuses for Everton and QPR. And for a few months I've been writing that October was the most important month for him and I've just found the post and I even write about the need for a new CEO.
Bottom line
We have to beat the likes of QPR and we have to be going to Goodison Park with a chance and seeing as the manager is trying to play football the right way and with the likes of Roy Keane and some better players, if we go to Everton and lose, you've got to question what's happening.
You could even argue that if after three seasons of not moving forward and after all the chances the manager has had, giving him another chance would be just us fooling ourselves. That's why the next two games really are the most important for this manager.
We're going to beat Everton and QPR
And this is where we're going to end with optimism and it's not just because Everton have started poorly and could be in the bottom three by the time we play them, although that plays a part, it's because I think we'll go to Everton and win. And I think we'll beat QPR.
And it's blind optimism. Everything that needed to happen has happened and things are actually looking better. Sure, we need to get better in the final third, but against Everton and QPR, that will happen. It's written in the stars.
There is little reason to hope we wont win. I've decided to believe we will. You just have to decide if you're going to get on.