Arsenal may not yet be firing on all cylinders this season but they have won three and rawn one of their four Premier League and Champions League games to date, and while the goals are not exactly flying in they are adjusting to life without talismanic striker Thierry Henry. The Gunners' all-time record goalscorer left the club for Barcelona in the summer, leaving the goalscoring burden on the shoulders of Arsenal's new generation of strikers.
One of them, Togo international Emmanuel Adebayor, insists that even without Henry, the Gunners can sustain a realistic title challenge this season.
Following injury, Adebayor had his first game of the season in the 1-0 victory over Manchester City, and said afterwards: “The boss told us to be patient and, in the end, we won with an amazing Fabregas goal.
"Maybe in the past our heads would have dropped after that missed penalty [awarded when Micah Richards fouled Alexander Hleb, but saved from Robin van Persie by Kasper Schmeichel].
"But we believed in ourselves and know we can score at any moment.
“Thierry was one of the best players here, one of the best in the world. Yet now he has gone and we have to do the job without him.
"Now it is down to me, to Robin and Eduardo to score the goals. And we are all doing our best to strive for the League.”
With seven points in the bank after their first three games, Arsenal have already reached manager Arsene Wenger’s first target.
The Frenchman said: “At this stage of last season, we had only two points and were already under mental pressure.
“A team like Manchester United are big enough to deal with that and come back.
“But we were a very young side and it was a bit too much for us.
“It was important to get a good start this time and we have done that.”
Now Arsenal turn to Champions League business again. They lead Sparta Prague 2-0 from the first leg of their Third Qualifying Round tie and must finish the job at the Emirates on Wednesday in order to reach the lucrative group stage for the tenth consecutive season.
Then on Sunday they host Portsmouth at the Emirates in the Premier League.
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