Champaign Champion Performances

The saying goes, "...you don't win the league in September..." or something like that. Maybe not, but I feel you could easily fall out of contention. As a matter of fact, our pre-season form was a matter for concern for quite a few Chelsea fans, me included. Fast forward a month or so and you have to say the concerns were a tad "silly".

Chelsea are standing proud atop the Premier League, with the only remaining 100% record in England. Wins over West Bromwich Albion (h, 6-0), Wigan Athletic (a, 6-0), Stoke City (h, 2-0), West Ham (a, 3-1) and Blackpool (h, 4-0) has seen us go 4 points clear of our nearest rivals, Le Arse and the Devils, with a vastly superior goal difference. This point about the goal difference: I have to say that it is significant as it gives you a psychological edge over your opponents. They will always require at least 1 point more than you to win when they cannot match you on goal difference.

On the European front, we have also got off to a flier in the Corrupt Cup (as I like to call it), with a 4-1 away win over Zilina.

Now, critics like Alex Ferguson may say that we have had it easy, yadda, yadda, yadda, but I say you can only beat what's put in front of you. We'll worry about the likes of the Devils and Citizens when the time comes. As a matter of fact, we play the Blue half of Manchester this weekend so that will be fun. We then play Le Arse the following weekend, which will be doubly fun. If we play the way we did in that first half against Blackpool, nobody could match us. The movement was exhilarating. Of course, the second half was totally forgettable. My theory is the players got over-confident and wanted to rack up a big score, but forgot the basics of passing and movement, settling on everyone wanting to do it themselves. That is something Carlo needs to work on.

But to end on a positive note: teams that have won their first 4 league games, let alone the first 5 as we have done this season, usually win the title. I'm not so attached to the results as I am to the performances. Twenty-one goals in 5 matches (over 4 a match on average) is something to be proud of. Carlo is doing something right. And Chelsea must be in with a very good chance of defending our league title.