Bournemouth moved into the top two after their 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Sunday, extending their unbeaten run to eight games – only losing on the opening day to Liverpool at Anfield.
But Iraola said he had not looked at the standings, and he reiterated his belief that it is far too early to be looking at this.
“I look at the 18 points,” he said.
Read more:
“If [Manchester] City and Liverpool won their games, we will be fourth and we will be exactly in the same position.
“For me, the 18 points is the most important thing. And now you know what I'm going to tell you.
“We'll play City away and Villa away before the break. I would like to add more points.
“I don't care about the position right now. The league is so compact that one win, one loss, you go five, six positions up and down.
“So now it's about the performances, how competitive we are and we will try to add points. But I know it's going to be very difficult to add more points now before the break.”
He continued: “It’s nine games into the season.
“There is a probability that you lose these two games and, because we lose two, we are 11th, we don't care if we're 11th or seventh.
“It’s 18 points from nine games, it’s a very good amount but I wish you ask me these questions when we are in February of March but we are not, still we have to play and win a lot of games.”