Richard Williams finds it hard to poke holes in the champions' title march

When Peter Kenyon issued his midsummer claim that this season's Premiership-winning team would come from a "bunch of one", football fans outside London SW6 were infuriated by the arrogance of Chelsea's chief executive. Even those neutrals who had not been displeased, back in May, to see the championship go to Stamford Bridge for the first time in half a century found themselves hoping he would pay for his presumption. But now, a mere five fixtures into the season, his ugly boast is starting to sound merely prophetic.

Played five, won five. Goals for, 10. Goals against, nil. Clouds on horizon, also nil. And what it feels like is this: for the first time since the championship came into existence, the title race is over before the leaves have turned brown.

"I don't think any of us can go in there with an inferiority complex," Alan Curbishley said, looking ahead to the meeting between his Charlton Athletic side and the leaders at The Valley this afternoon.

Currently second in the table and also with maximum points from a game fewer, the hard-working Charlton players probably stand as good a chance as any of causing the sort of upset produced only once last year, when Manchester City prevented Chelsea from emulating Arsenal's unbeaten season in the league. But to take the bet, you would need to have money to burn.

"I don't think it's all over," Bryan Robson, who saw his West Bromwich Albion side concede four goals at the Bridge last month, said this week.

"I expect Manchester United to push them all the way. But with their squad, and the way they've started, they're the team to beat again."

Two factors weigh heavily against an imminent disruption of the champions' progress to a second title. The first is that they are currently winning games without producing the stylish, authoritative football of which the world knows them to be capable. "We're keeping it very tight and winning by one or two goals," John Terry, their captain, said this week. "Individually I think we're playing very well but that togetherness, that rhythm, that passing that Arsenal have got, we just haven't got it at the moment."

What he did not need to say was that, when Arsenal lose the rhythm of their passing, they start losing matches. Chelsea just plough on, improvising ways of scoring the odd goal or two while keeping their opponents out. Result: grumbles from the aesthetes, who complain a group of players costing £151 million should be putting their gifts to more appealing use, but three more points every time.

"Even last year," Curbishley said, "when Arsenal and United were drawing games they perhaps should have won, Chelsea didn't. They invariably got the result and that was the springboard for them to do so well in the Premiership. They appear to be doing it again this year."

The second factor in Chelsea's favour is that they have no key man whose loss through injury or suspension would significantly diminish their effectiveness. Arsenal have never been the same side without Patrick Vieira, and Manchester United continue to suffer from the absences of Roy Keane.

At Stamford Bridge the squad resembles one of those self-sealing rubberised petrol tanks used in formula one cars. The goalkeeper, centre backs, full backs, wingers and lone striker are all duplicated in kind and quality. And the £24.4-million capture of Michael Essien solves the final problem of what to do when Claude Makelele or Frank Lampard, both hitherto believed to be irreplaceable, is missing. Clearly the young Ghanaian can do the specialist job of either and might eventually turn out to be stronger than both.

To Curbishley, Chelsea's bottomless purse has changed the nature of the contest.

"The problem we have is that, unless something dramatic happens, their financial circumstances are not going to change. We've never been in this position before. The gauntlet has been thrown down and it's up to the other top clubs to react."

Throw in the irrepressible Jose Mourinho, whose ability to maintain harmony and a sense of purpose in the dressing-room is a major factor. He seems about to repeat the back-to-back titles he achieved with Porto before arriving in England. The precise nature of Mourinho's vulnerability, if any, has yet to make itself known.