That said, realistically we weren't going to win it this time anyway. You don 't go from 7th to Champions, and getting in the top four and back into the Champions League was always the summit of our league ambitions if we're being serious.
Once you accept that, then obviously assuming Chelsea, man Utd and Arsenal are going to get in there, and once you accept (which I have

Lets then have a look at the current league table amongst our mini league (getting a bit Tompkinesque here

1. Birmingham pl 4 pnts 6
2. Villa pl 4 pnts 6
3. City pl 4 pnts 5
4. Spurs pl 4 pnts 5
5. Liverpool pl 4 pnts 5
So looking at that, we are right in the mix and we've had a more than tasty start. If we then look at how well you have to do to come fourth, well four seasons ago Arsenal got 68 points, three seasons ago we got 76, two seasons ago Arsenal got 72, and last season Spurs got 70.
As usaal, it's not avoiding defeat which counts, it's winning. Spurs lost 10 league matches last season (which was only 1 less than us), yet still got 70 points. Clearly it won't be easy for us to win at Old Trafford, but equally clearly if we can rack up some points in the winnable games 6-10 then we could be looking quite good.
Spurs despite having a relatively easy start have stuttered (Champions League hangover) while Villa simply don't look good enough to me. Everton and Birmingham are decent but probably light squad wise, which means almost certainly Man City are going to be our main rivals IMHO. Unfortunately for us, the only game they played well in was against us, but they are in the Europa league as well and will take it seriously.
For me, we should be setting our stall out here and now for fourth. Attack and defend in games with 75 points being the target. Get anywhere near that, and we'll be in IMHO.