If there's one thing I've learned this summer, it's that without life without football is no life at all. But not to worry because the sport of kings (angry, red-faced hooligan kings) is back again! Moreover it's been streamlined; no longer do we have to wait until the final day of the season to be sure of the standings - the first game of the season tells us everything we need to know about the year to come, at least if the press are to be believed. The title, if you can imagine, is going to Chelsea, after they dispatched Hull City with the ruthless efficiency that we've come to expect from a Mourinho team, while Newcastle are certain for the drop after they were hammered 4-0 by a rampant Manchester City side. Arsenal, meanwhile, will be lucky to place in the top half of the table, let alone challenge for the Champions League spots again.

This was the narrative being forced on fans after match day one when the Gunners went down 3-1 to a resurgent Aston Villa team at the Emirates. Arsenal, they said, were in crisis. An opening day defeat at the hands of a team that barely avoided the drop last season spelled doom for the club, and the sword of Damocles swung ominously above the head of manager Arsene Wenger. Never mind that this is a man who has kept Arsenal competitive for years on a shoestring - disregard the fact that he's the club's longest serving manager, and ignore his many achievements; his team had lost the first game of the season, and he had to go.

Well thankfully the Arsenal board, mildly incompetent though they may be, weren't tempted by the prospect of Newcastle style fan appeasing knee-jerk decision. Wenger's still at the club, and after consecutive victories fans are remembering why his presence  is still vital. Granted, the Arsenal's summer transfer window activities were mismanaged (more on that in a bit) but now Champions League football seems more or less guaranteed for the remainder of the year, this season looks a little more rosy than it did last week.

The loss to Villa was disappointing but unsurprising. A squad stretched thin by departures and injuries was beaten by a team playing good counter attacking football, or in other words, Arsenal kryptonite. The Birmingham side are better than their league position last season suggests, and a lot of neutrals are excited about what this season holds for Paul Lambert's young team. Granted, the visitors had a few strokes of luck, their second goal coming via a dubious penalty decision, and Koscielny didn't help the cause after he picked up his second booking while Arsenal were chasing the game. Nonetheless, fans felt highly aggrieved, as is their wont, and most of their anger was directed at the club's upper management.

Arsenal have shown a surprising amount of resilience in recent seasons, playing some of their best football after tough losses, but few were expecting them to go to their first leg Champions League qualifier in Turkey and come back with 3 vital away goals and a clean sheet. Nonetheless that's how it went down, with the goals coming from Gibbs, Ramsey and Giroud. The second leg tomorrow night should be a formality, and barring a major disaster, Arsenal will be appearing in their 16 consecutive Champions League group stage.

If the victory in Turkey was a pleasant surprise, then the subsequent fixture at Fulham was an absolute delight. The win was wrapped up with over twenty minutes to go after Giroud opened the scoring and Podolski grabbed a brace, and though Darren Bent grabbed a late consolation strike for the home side, Arsenal deserved the points.

Particularly impressive through those two games were Ramsey, Rosicky and Giroud. The two midfielders seem to have developed an excellent understanding, and with the former adeptly stepping into the role of anchor man, the always underrated Rosicky has been given license to roam further up-field where he can wreak the most damage. Ramsey is surprisingly efficient in his new defensive role - Arsenal's ten match unbeaten run at the tail end of last season in which they conceded just 5 goals had much to do with the Welshman's excellent sense of positioning and timing, and the youngster has done a great deal to mitigate his side's need for a more conventional defensive midfielder.

Meanwhile Giroud has started the season strongly by grabbing three in three, and is finally showing the kind of form that attracted the attention of his current club in the first place. The Frenchman is a gifted goalscorer and should kick on from a solid first season in England.

The fact remains that the Arsenal squad is still frustratingly thin however. The club cleared out a lot of deadwood over the summer, but have so far failed to find replacements. The statement at the start of the summer that a substantial transfer budget had been made available to Wenger was supposed to be a declaration of intent; how they didn't anticipate this leading to clubs asking for more money for their players is completely beyond me however. Surely that's bartering 101 - don't say how much you've got to spend, otherwise you tip your hand and end up spending more. It really is that simple.

Consequently the club, which is still refusing to pay silly money for players, has ended up with no one. It almost seems like Wenger and the board were more confused than anything else about what to do with all that money - being the rich kids at the buffet was must have been strange and disconcerting. Instead of begging for scraps they found themselves eyeing up the gourmet treats, but after a series of faux pas they find themselves with nothing. Suarez, unsurprisingly, is staying in Liverpool this season (barring a late bid from Madrid). Should Bale head to the Spanish capital (which looks extremely likely) then winger Angel Di Maria might be allowed to join the Gunners for as little as 26 million, but his teammate Karim Benzema is staying put (at least according to his agent). Newcastle midfielder Yohann Cabaye is allegedly on strike following a 10 million bid from Arsenal, but the Geordies are looking for something closer to 20. In short, it seems like no one is even close to signing a deal with us yet.

Anyway the upshot is that there's exactly one week left in the transfer window, and that's also still the same number of players that the club has signed so far. We still need a defender, a midfielder, a striker and ideally a winger in order to challenge for anything this season, and a last minute splurge is never advisable as it leads to an influx of overpriced mediocrity (see Gervinho, Park Chu Young etc.). Nonetheless, Wenger has steered this ship wisely over the past 16 years, so if nothing else he's earned some faith. Godspeed, Arsene - go spend some money old friend.