Interesting thoughts. What seems to be happening with us - and it is a huge compliment to the way we play - is that to beat us most teams have to set out to stop us and if they don't, we will often find a way of winning. In other words, a team can't just rock up and play the way they want to without having a plan to stop us. So we know that at our best we can beat the best and every team we play knows it and that we are dangerous if they are not geared up to counter our methods.
So a Reading or a Burnley and some other teams will get it right against us, even Man City and Chelsea have to play at their best and us not at our best....and what struck me against Chelsea was they realised they had to raise their game in the second half at CR. Man City just thought their methods would be good enough, without trying too hard to press us - and they found out how good we can be.
So whenever I watch us play I look at the opposition in the first few minutes and decide whether they have set up to stop us or not. Newcastle did not and it was obvious from the first minute. Man City did not - they just tried to play how they always play and it gave us a chance. Liverpool caught us cold imo and we grew into that game. Chelsea didn't set out to stop us and only succeeded imo by playing at their very best and us losing a bit of momentum. Burnley did and got joy against us. West Ham was not great, but the Zimbo incident affected our chances there.
So overall, our football at it's best is as good as you will see anywhere and this season will be fascinating as it unfolds and as with last season, teams will have to be at their very very best or at least have a method of trying to stop us, or we will punish them.
Sorry for the long post.