Chelsea have set their hearts on winning the Champions League this season, which is said to give their domestic rivals a glimmer of hope in the Premiership. Yes, of course it does. Dream on.

Those who pine for a more competitive league (and they said much the same when Manchester United were the money men) will have to wait until Roman Abramovich tires of his plaything or Jose Mourinho has had his fill of English football. Together, Croesus and Midas are an unbeatable combination.

Anybody inclined to refer Chelsea’s predominance to the Monopolies Commission should remember that Manchester United won the Premiership three seasons in a row between 1999 and 2001, so there would be nothing new about Mourinho and his all-stars doing similar. Which they will. Sir Alex Ferguson’s suggestion last week that “maybe all the challenges have gone for them” had the shrill sound of a worried man whistling in the dark.

The all-conquering team that ran away with the title by an eight-point margin last May can only have been improved by the addition of the endlessly prolific Andriy Shevchenko and Michael Ballack, the captain of Germany. And if William Gallas is tossing his toys out of the pram, so what? There’s always another £20m available to replace him.

Much more challenging for Chelsea this season, and therefore more interesting for the impartial observer, will be their performance in the Champions League, where they have been disappointing to date. Failing to make the quarter-finals last time after getting to the semis the year before was a mortifying experience, and one the players are pledged to redress. As Claude Makelele puts it: “In England we are the best team, there is no doubt about that. Now we have vowed to win the Champions League. Europe is a wall for us to break down after years of failure.”

Continuing in persuasive vein, he added: “Little by little, Chelsea have come to look like a gathering of the best players in Europe, and each year the team is improving. In England our rivals are trying to close the gap, but I don’t think they have the players to break our supremacy.”

Apart from their two major signings, Chelsea look even stronger for the recruitment of John Obi Mikel, for whom they outmuscled United, and Salomon Kalou, and fans reluctant to bid farewell to Hernan Crespo and Eidur Gudjohnsen have been placated by the arrival of Shevchenko and Ballack to replace them.

So much for the odds-on favourites, what of the rest (it is tempting to say also-rans)? United, runners-up last season, have not been champions since 2003 and appear ill-equipped to triumph again after selling Ruud van Nistelrooy, their principal goalscorer, and signing Michael Carrick, who is a good midfielder but nowhere near good enough to create the collective improvement needed to cause Chelsea genuine concern.

If only for the sake of his reputation, Ferguson should have retired a couple of years ago, when he seriously contemplated doing so. The old warrior may still have fire in his belly, but he no longer has the wherewithal to add to all those titles, and the thought of a bunch of American cowboys giving the bum’s rush to the doyen of British managers is too distasteful to stomach.

Liverpool finished at the gallop last time, stringing together nine successive wins to secure third place in the league and lifting the FA Cup after an epic final against West Ham. They are improving year by year under the quietly impressive management of Rafael Benitez, who has addressed two obvious weaknesses by gambling on Jermaine Pennant and Craig Bellamy, a pair with a past more chequered than Burberry. Pennant, who was England’s right-winger-in-waiting before Aaron Lennon burst on to the scene, has been signed from Birmingham to provide the width that was lacking, and Bellamy, from Blackburn, is seen as the 20-goals-a-season striker needed since Michael Owen left. Solid all round, Liverpool finished only one point behind United last season and, suitably reinforced, should overtake them this time.

Arsenal, at a plush new home that makes a mockery of all those Wembley delays, may be hard pressed to hold on to fourth place. With Sol Campbell, Robert Pires and Dennis Bergkamp all gone and Ashley Cole and Jose Reyes inching towards the exit, their lack of strength in depth is a fundamental weakness that Tomas Rosicky alone is nowhere near enough to remedy.

Tottenham ought to have held off their arch rivals for the last Champions League place back in May and were sick, in more ways than one, given the end-of-season food poisoning fiasco, when they were pipped at the finishing post. Martin Jol’s eager-beaver improvers will miss Carrick’s metronomic influence, but Didier Zokora, from St Etienne, is a promising replacement, young Lennon has the look of a potential champion and Spurs possess the strong spine that is a prerequisite of success.

Next we come to a mini-league of five clubs, at most, for whom the realistic target is a Uefa Cup spot. Blackburn were in this group last time, but will be hard pressed to repeat sixth place after losing their best player, Bellamy, to Liverpool. Ditto Newcastle, seventh last season but now without Alan Shearer, who has retired, and Owen, whose career is threatened by yet another serious injury. Damien Duff has been acquired from Chelsea to provide the ammunition, but who is going to pull the trigger? At Bolton, much will depend on how quickly manager Sam Allardyce overcomes his disappointment at missing out on the England job. The big man’s mastery of the alchemist’s arts has served his club well in recent years, but if he were to lose his appetite for management on a shoestring — and he is known to hanker after a bigger stage — the Trotters would be headed for the knacker’s yard.

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