Chelsea have started this season as well as they could have hoped.
In fact they have made the best ever start to a Premier League season with five consecutive wins and a goal difference of plus 20.
But it is important to realise that they have had the easiest run of five games any team could ever wish to have at the start of the season, so much so that I would not be surprised if Roman Abramovich had slipped the Premier League a cheeky couple of million for such ‘friendly fixtures’.
No doubt if something similar occurred in Serie A the Gazzetta dello Sport would run a ‘fixture-fixing’ front page.
Out of the five games already played, Chelsea have played four teams (Wigan, West Ham, West Brom and Blackpool) who could easily be the bottom four at the end of the season. The other game was at home to Stoke City, who Chelsea beat 7-0 in the corresponding fixture last season.
After an awful pre-season, in which Chelsea did not win a game, they could not have wished for an easier run of games to help them back into form.
Full credit to Chelsea though for taking advantage and opening up a four-point gap at the top of the table. They do look very impressive, especially with Michael Essien back in midfield and Florent Malouda scoring goals for fun.
However, their comfortable start ended this weekend with their next two league fixtures seeing them travel to Eastlands to take on Manchester City, and then face Arsenal at Stamford Bridge.
Next Saturday will be a big test for Carlo Ancelotti’s side, particularly as Manchester City beat them home and away in the league last season.
So don’t get carried away with the pundits that the BBC and Sky pull out of the retired footballer closet and their ridiculous odds of 8/11 to win the league.
Chelsea’s first real test is next weekend.
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