Chelsea continued their impressive start to this Premier League season and maintained a 100% record with another comfortable win over Cardiff City last weekend.
So could Chelsea repeat their recent sequence of title-wining campaigns and make it a hat-trick in a season ending in an odd number and with another new man in charge?
The Blues have most recently won the League in odd-ending seasons, 2015 and 2017.
Ok Jose Mourinho wasn’t technically a brand new manager when he returned to Stamford Bridge in 2013! Mourinho of course was in his second spell after the acrimonious end to his first Chelsea era in 2007.
But nevertheless he had come back after a number of season’s away from English football managing several of the continent’s top clubs.
And the title winners of 2016-17 were coached by a brand new man, Antonio Conte. He was making his debut in the Premier League when he led Chelsea to that record-breaking success.
Now another Italian in his first season in England, Mauricio Sarri, has led the Blues to the top of the table after five games, albeit only on goal difference.
As he himself is aware, it’s still very much early days, but the signs are good that Chelsea may well prove a genuine contender for the title once again.
Key to their hopes of course is the form and fitness of the brilliant Eden Hazard. The diminutive Belgian forward has netted five times already this season and is playing as well as at any time since he joined Chelsea.
If he can maintain that sort of form then the Stamford Bridge club will always have a real chance of winning silverware. Chelsea fans must be mightily relieved he didn’t leave this summer as many perhaps thought he would.
Hazard is doing the one thing this season that maybe he might not have done enough of in the past; scoring goals.
The Belgian international has always been a superb player menacing defences with dazzling runs and creating chances with his pace, skill and strength. But in past seasons he’ s perhaps not scored enough goals.
Certainly to be ranked with the very best players in the game, Ronaldo, Messi et al he needed to add more goals to his repertoire. Now he seems to be on the way to doing just that.
But Chelsea are more than just Hazard. They have a very strong midfield and a defence that for the moment is standing up reasonably well to examination. New goalkeeper Keke Arrizabalaga has also slotted in well.
In midfield the Blues are well equipped to compete.
N’Golo Kante is still one of the best all-round midfielders in the League and certainly more than just a ball-winner, while the addition of Jorginho and Real Madrid loanee Mateo Kovacic have given the Blues a powerful and dynamic midfield.
And then there are players like Pedro and Willian, surely one of the most underrated players in the Premier League. The versatile Brazilian always seems to have a good game whenever and wherever he plays.
But I think one of the other key reason’s for Chelsea’s success is the influence of Olivier Giroud. The French international striker who arrived in the January transfer window is becoming a very shrewd acquisition.
Giroud claimed two assists in Saturday’s 4-1 win over Cardiff. And just like for France in this summer’s World Cup, he is proving a very effective target man and focal point for his team’s attacks.
Chelsea never recovered from losing Diego Costa last January and although they spent a fortune on Alvaro Morata, he never convinced he could replace the powerful and physically intimidating Spanish international.
Costa was ideal for the sort of attacking players the Blues have. He could be that lone striker who would occupy and bully central defenders while Hazard, Pedro, Willian and others played off him.
Although Giroud is not as physical as Costa, (or to other teams and fans as irritating!), he uses his size and strength well and has certainly struck up a good understanding with Hazard.
This is critical for Chelsea’s chances of course and such a partnership might have a decisive influence on the title’s destination in May.
Perhaps the only major concern they might have is whether the Europa League distraction will affect the team in terms of form and possibly injuries. But they seem to have enough strength in-depth to cope and I would imagine Sarri won’t play a first-choice side in many of those matches.