Erik Lamela welcomes the season going into overdrive after this international break.

After a steady start of four Premier League games over successive weekends, the calendar kicks in with the introduction of Champions League and League Cup matches in the next few weeks.

Indeed, we now face seven games in 21 days between Saturday and 5 October – Palace, Olympiacos, Leicester, Colchester, Southampton, Bayern Munich and Brighton – before internationals return mid-October.

“September is busy, and I like that,” said the all-action Argentine, enjoying a fine start to the campaign. “Everyone gets minutes, everyone gets fitness and that is always good for the team, for all the players, for the mentality.

“We did well against Arsenal and if we win the first few games after the international break we can really go forward. I think we play better when we have a lot of games. Hopefully we can win the next few games and really start to push on.”