Podolski: It's too early for title talk
Arsenal striker Lukas Podolski is not letting all the positive talk surrounding the Gunners' solid start to the season get to him and wants to take it one game at a time.
By ESPNSTAR.com staff
The Gunners are yet to be defeated in the new season and have been praised for improvements on both the attacking and defensive fronts.
On Tuesday, they also dispatched Montpellier in their Champions League opener after coming from behind in a 2-1 victory.
But they face the tough proposition of having to visit Premier League champions Manchester City at the Etihad stadium on Sunday. It is widely expected that the clash could have an important say on whether Arsenal or City become frontrunners in the title race as the Citizens have been equally impressive and have similarly carried out an unbeaten start to the season.
Podolski, who scored in the win over Montpellier in France, feels that all the early-season talk over Arsenal's title hopes is premature. He called for calm and believes that the players should only be focused on doing well in the upcoming league fixture and not get distracted by the plaudits that have come their way in recent weeks.
"We have only played four matches. It's [too early] to speak about the championship," he told Arsenal Player. "When you win a match, you are not a champion. When you lose a match, you are not a champion.
"We want to win all the matches we play and I think if we play the same as we did against Liverpool and Southampton then we have a chance at Man City to get the three points.
"It's very important [to keep playing well]. We have had some strong matches, but Man City played in Madrid and now against us - it's a tough week."
Podolski has had a superb start to his Arsenal career and has already scored three goals so far. But the German insists that he is only concerned with helping the side consolidate three points in their games and does not care too much about individual statistics.
"I'm happy to score goals for the team and the club. We're also very happy with the three points - it was very important for us," he said.
"We played very well in the first half after the Montpellier goal. The second half was not so good. We didn't play so well going forwards, but what was important was the three points."
Arsenal failed to secure three points in the corresponding fixture last season as David Silva scored the only goal of the game.