PAT NEVIN: RUN AHEAD

With the season now two months through, the time is right reckons columnist and Chelsea legend Pat Nevin, to study what awaits Andre Villas-Boas and the players over the next four weeks…

For me Saturday was one of the trickiest ties that Chelsea have faced this season in that Everton are bordering on a bogey team for the Blues.

They also have a superb manager who makes the best of what he has available with astute tactics and a great team spirit engendered over the years. Having overcome that hurdle the fences on the horizon are arguably slightly less imposing.

As usual there is the general caveat that any team can produce an upset, especially in the Premier League, and of course players and management cannot officially look any further ahead than the next game, but there is a run now that looks very appetising if there is a fair wind in our sails. After the Genk game tomorrow it is QPR at Loftus Road, they haven't won at home yet in the Premier League so I don't expect Chelsea at the top of their form will be their first victims.

After that it is Arsenal at home and then Blackburn away. The Gunners have certainly picked up a bit since what could only be described as a horrendous start to the campaign, but even so there has rarely been a better time in the past decade to face Arsenal in the search of three points.

As for Blackburn Rovers, the league table doesn't look very impressive at all for them - rock bottom and there is plenty of discontent in the stands to boot. Right now if you had to choose a team to travel to in the Premier League it might just be them.

Next up after that is Liverpool and although there has been a bit of a revival from Kenny's men, particularly since Steven Gerrard tiptoed onto the scene again, they still aren't travelling very well. Their win at Everton makes it look a lot better superficially, but that was hugely aided by a horrendous and now officially erroneous refereeing decision that reduced the Toffees to ten men. 

After that it is the battling but struggling Wolves who visit the Bridge, again a game that with a decent level of performance, we would expect to win. It is not an easy run as such and who knows what form, injuries and refereeing decisions will do to the chances, but there is clearly an opportunity over the next six weeks to put serious pressure on Manchesters United and City.

In amongst all those league games are three cup ties, Everton at Goodison in the Carling Cup is arguably the tallest order of all because the two games against Genk are very winnable when all things are considered. I feel a little sorry for the Belgians at the moment in that they are currently being severely hampered by a spate of injuries to some of their most important players.

Small-ish European sides can't carry big squads with quality throughout, so in the two games against Chelsea, which are undoubtedly the glamour ties of Genk's campaign, they may well be forced to play quite a few reserves and even the odd kid who really needs another year or two before being introduced at this level.

So although I do feel sorry for their predicament, the sympathy will wane/disappear when the teams run out tomorrow night. A solid professional job in both these games home and away should just about do the trick for qualification to the knockout stages, certainly one win from the two final matches after that will be enough.

So both domestically and in Europe it is an important time but a very positive time and that is happening just when Manchester United are having a 'difficult moment'. Draws against Benfica, Stoke, Basel and Liverpool are not necessarily terrible results, but they at least indicate a weakness at some level. Added to the number of chances Norwich and indeed Chelsea created against them at Old Trafford and it is clear that the early season veil of invincibility is slipping.

It may well be that Manchester City are now as big a threat for the title as United and I suppose there will be a good indication of that when the teams meet next Sunday at Old Trafford.

Both cannot obviously come away with three points early on Sunday afternoon and by the time the Blues walk out at Loftus Road we will know just how far three points of our own will take us. Match scheduling doesn't usually seem to help us, but for once I think we benefit from Sky's Super Sunday programming.

I'm currently preparing to get down for the Genk game where I will be co-commentating for Chelsea TV and doing the build-up and post-match phone-ins to boot. This should be lots of fun, as long as we win of course and continue what has been a fine sequence of results as well as some equally impressive displays.

There is just one thought though, when things are going just as smoothly as they are, don't you just think there must be a fly ready to appear in the ointment somewhere? Maybe that is me just being a typical football fanatic however. Even when the times are good it is hard to just sit back and enjoy them, because you know it can all change very quickly if you do not keep doing the right things. Time to concentrate then, but I suspect AVB knows that already.

Someone who can afford to sit back and enjoy the glory right now is the most recent quiz winner. There are two correct answers to the question, where doesFrank Lampard currently sit in the all-time scorers list at Chelsea? Well he is third in the list for scorers in all competitions. First is still Bobby Tambling with 202, followed by Kerry Dixon with 193 and then comes Lamps with 175. With regard to the League figures only however, he is fifth behind Bobby Tambling164, Kerry Dixon 147, Roy Bentley 128 and then Jimmy Greaves 124 before Lamps with 119.

Just about everyone got it right, but the lucky winner chosen at random by my currently less than glamorous assistant, who had to be dragged out of bed this morning to choose, is Cheong Meng Jon from Malaysia. The quiz will be back again next week.