It feels strange to go into a new season relatively stress free and surprisingly optimistic, so it was fitting the fixture computer decided to give us a potential banana skin away to a team still high on their promotion success.

Congratulations and a big high six to Norwich on winning the play-offs, but we managed to avoid embarrassment with a routine win, thanks to a mature performance and a helping hand from newbie ref Simon Hooper.

It was harsh on Norwich but after what seems like years of big decisions going against Palace, it looks like we are finally an established Premier League team.

Although it’s hard not to miss tedious 1-0 losses away to Scunthorpe on freezing December evenings, the blow is certainly softened by regularly coming up against - and competing with - world class talent such as Sergio Aguero and Eden Hazard.

And Cameron Jerome, of course.

This weekend we entertain already former Premier League title hopefuls Arsenal, who will no doubt be fresh and ready to go after a longer than usual pre-season break having failed to turn up to their opening game last weekend.

After a summer of listening to Arsenal fans bleat on about how this is ‘their year’ for the millionth season in a row, it’s just a shame West Ham were able to bring them back down to earth before Palace got the chance.

It’s not often you see a midfield as good as Arsenal’s get taught a lesson by a kid still awaiting his GCSE results.

Alan Pardew admitted he thought he’d picked the wrong team for the win at Norwich, so it’s fair to say we haven’t seen our strongest side yet and can only improve.

There’s still a big debate about who is our best option in goal, with Pardew opting to give a debut to Alex McCarthy at Carrow Road, claiming he is good enough to break into England’s squad for the Euros next summer.

After seeing Nathan Redmond’s shot fly into the bottom corner on Saturday, I can only agree.

With reactions like that, McCarthy is a shoe in to go down in England history, alongside legends such as Robert Green, Paul Robinson and Scott Carson.

I’m joking of course, as the new signing pulled off a wonderful double save in the second half, which my dad hasn’t stopped going on about since, comparing him to ex-Sunderland keeper Jimmy Montgomery, much to my obliviousness.

“How do you not know who he is? Did you not watch the 1973 FA Cup Final?”

Funnily enough dad, no I didn’t, as you would have only been eight years old at the time.

It always takes new signings a few games to find their feet and we’d be foolish to write a keeper off after one mistake.

Just ask Julian Speroni.

Yohan Cabaye had a fairly quiet game, so it was nice to see him wrap up the points with a composed finish.

But you can already tell the quality he has just from the calmness he brings to the midfield when he’s on the ball.

Once he plays a few more games and we get some minutes out of Patrick Bamford, Connor Wikcham and Bakary Sako, we’ll truly see how far we’ve come in such a short space of time.

And the quality of this squad will really help us push onto the next level.

Alan Pardew says he’s done for the summer in terms of transfers, but I’m still hopeful that we can bring in another centre back to partner Scott Dann.

Rumours of Ashley Williams and Jose Fonte have slowly fizzled out, so I hope Pardew has a trick or two up his sleeve for the upcoming weeks before the transfer window shuts.

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