Podolski - I'm happy with first six months

Lukas Podolski is content with the way his first six months at Arsenal have panned out.

The Germany international is currently in a rich vein of scoring form, despite operating primarily on the left, and scored his 10th goal of the season with a sharp effort on the turn at Swansea City last Sunday.

Podolski believes that, both in terms of his performances and his acclimatisation to the English game, life in north London is a case of 'so far, so good'.

He told the Official Matchday Programme: "It's been a good half-season for me - I'm happy.

"I've come to a new league, a new country, and I think things have gone OK. Then again, I've been a professional footballer for 10 years so it's not as if my environment has changed at a very young age. I'm 27 and have won a lot of caps for Germany, so I expected to come here and adapt.

"I now have 10 goals and seven assists, and I think these are good figures. It could be better - you can always be better - but I think it's decent because I'm playing more as a left-sided midfielder than as a striker.

"When you play up front or in the number 10 position, like Santi, you have more chances to score. I think I've done well on the left and feel good about how things have gone."

Podolski is positive that things can get even better this weekend when Manchester City come to town - and draws encouragement from a hard-fought draw between the two sides earlier this season.

"It's a hard game against a great team," he said. "But when we played there early in the season I thought we were the better team and could have won. We had a lot of chances, and now we're playing at home so we need to make it count.

"We need to fight hard and take the three points to close the gap with the teams in front of us."