Arsene Wenger is looking forward to confounding low expectations of Arsenal's Premier League campaign once again.
Wenger has grown accustomed to seeing the Gunners written off after being left trailing in the wake of their bigger-spending rivals during each transfer window.
And ahead of Sunday's game with Liverpool, Wenger admits the competition for top four places is fierce.
"You never expect much from us, but we always have a good potential to surprise you," he said.
"If I listened to the predictions on the same day last year, it was predicted we would finish between 10th and 15th. We finished third.
"There are also a lot of expectations at Liverpool. I believe Liverpool are a good team.
"Having watched all the games I could watch until now in the Premier League, it's very difficult to single one team out above everyone else.
"Liverpool certainly have a chance to be fighting for the top, but we're competing with Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United now as well."
Wenger believes the immediate, charged reaction to results these days is evidence of how the pressures of the game have changed.
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers became favourite to be the first manager to be sacked after the Reds' 3-0 defeat by West Brom on the opening day of the season.
"That tells you a lot about the emotion in modern society," Wenger said. "There are instant reactions on Twitter, on radio and the internet.
"Society has moved from having a distance to events, to becoming highly emotional.
"We have moved from a thinking society to an emotional society.
"I think it's better to think before you say something. It's easy to speak."
Arsenal also face Manchester City and Chelsea in a busy September, but Wenger refuses to overplay its importance.
"It's a big month because we play big teams and how well you do against big teams decides your end position in the table," he said.
"But there will be other massive months coming up for us because there are Champions League games.
"The good thing for us is that the big teams are also involved in Europe as well."
