With our form good and our confidence high, Arsenal fans are understandably looking up the Premier League rather than over our shoulders. So it is the two teams that finished above the Gunners, Chelsea and Man City, that we are looking at as the main obstacles to a Premier League title.
But maybe we should be just as worried about the team that we beat into third spot. The Barcelona manager Luis Enrique certainly seems to think we should after Manchester United beat the Spanish La Liga champions in a pre-season friendly game in America last night.
And the fact that they got the win without Di Maria or the new signing Schweinsteiger, with Louis van Gaal still expected to spend a lot of cash before the transfer window shuts, prompted Enrique to suggest in an ESPN report that United could do what his team achieved last season and bounce back from a disappointing year to claim the treble.
He said, “With a coach like Van Gaal and the kind of players they have. It is a team that are going for everything.
“In a year a lot of things can happen. We came off the back of a year without a trophy and we won the treble. United could do the same, it’s a great club.
“I spoke to [Van Gaal] for five minutes. It was a pleasure. He is a great person and one of the best coaches that I ever had. I have great memories of him.”
We already knew that winning the league was not going to be easy though, and we should also remember that Barcelona were without Messi and Neymar in the side and that it was only a friendly. But at the same time, Arsenal fans should not dismiss the threat posed by United or even Liverpool for that matter.
Who do you think will be our biggest rival this season?