Champions of Autumn, we know what we are

The English press is so convinced Chelsea will win the title that they've mostly given up on asking Jose Mourinho about that, preferring instead to focus on the question of whether or not we can match Arsenal's Invincibles run of 2003-04. But despite their new obsession, old habits die hard, and someone felt compelled to ask him about how he felt Chelsea stacked up in the title race.

The response was typically pithy, but at least we have a new, non-equine meme to play with.

All we can say is that we are the champions of autumn. I think we have a very good chance to win the title but I think we, Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United and Southampton are all still in the race.

-Source: BBC.

Champions of Autumn makes us sound like some sort of collection of Bacchic heroes -- Diego Costa is the Agave to the rest of the league's Pentheus, obviously -- and I'm completely fine with that. Eat, drink, be merry and win games sounds like a pretty good philosophy to me. But at the same time, this is an important reminder that this is early days yet, and that we can't take the league table too seriously after 11 matches.

After all, we might be four points clear ahead of Southampton (who, it must be said, have matched Arsenal's league-leading start to last season), but as the table from 2013-14 shows, some very strange things can happen between now and the end of the season. Take a look:

Yep. Last season's Champions of Autumn finished fourth, and the eventual Champions of The Important Part were eighth (and six points back) 11 games into last season. Now, Arsenal are a special case thanks to their blessed refusal to improve squad depth or grind out points against dangerous sides, but they should serve as a telling example: this position is not to be trusted, and form doesn't last forever. While we're in good shape so far this year, there's much work to be done yet.