Thomas Vermaelen, Arsenal’s only summer signing, was speaking after Wednesday’s 4-1 win over AZ Alkmaar on how the Gunners were not being taken seriously when the season kicked-off.

On whether the Gunners are good enough to go on and win important thing, the Belgian International said how Arsene Wenger’s side was maybe “underestimated” initially, but big games this month may be crucial in their quest for silverware.

Maybe we were a little bit underestimated at the start of the season.

A lot of people were talking about Arsenal not being good enough to be at the top, but we have done well so far in the Premier League and Champions League and we have to keep going because there are a lot of games to play.

We have some big games coming up including Chelsea. If we have a good result there, then it will be very big for us.

Thomas Vermaelen

On the Champions League, the defender added:

In the first game [against AZ] it was 1-1 and in the Champions League you don’t expect easy games.

But tonight against AZ I think we played well. We scored four goals and that is important. We have ten points now and that’s a lot. We have two more games to play and we are almost qualified.

I think we are confident if we play our own game. If we do, we can beat a lot of opponents but we have to do it in every game and that is the most difficult thing.