Chelsea's 7-2 drubbing of a sorry Sunderland side made a few statements on Saturday.

To the pundits: Yes, you can take four of our first-team players, including our leading scorer/offensive lynchpin, and we'll still be fine.

To the doubters: Arsenal good, Man Utd better, Chelsea best.

To Jose: Balotelli won't be your biggest headache come February.

Furthermore, even though Man Utd and Arsenal managed to stay close, neither team has consistently challenged Chelsea this year - either in quality or results. Particularly disappointing have been the Red Devils, who, for being just a solitary point back from top of the table, have never seemed to have the undefinable, yet indispensible, "it" this season, while the young Gunners have suffered multiple injury mishaps, with which their squad is just not equipped to deal.

In the end, the result seemed merciful as Anelka could've easily compounded the pain if he had capitalized on a sitter, while Lampsie narrowly missed the goal more than once. Free-flowing attack-minded football wasn't in the Blue's nature in title-winning years past, but it may just be their hallmark in 2010.