Check this out: Chelsea have taken 13 more points this year from corresponding fixtures last year (thanks Arsenal!). This is the biggest improvement of any team in the league, the team with the second biggest improvement (Swansea) has only 8 points more. Here's that table in full:

via differentangledotnet.files.wordpress.com

If we were to get the same results as last year from the remaining fixtures, here's where we'd end up:

via differentangledotnet.files.wordpress.com

The full article is worth a read and can be found here: http://different-angle.net/

That table looks pretty good to me. Yes we're not likely to win the league and the return on investment is pretty poor, I imagine that we'll continue improving somewhat till the end of the season and finish in third quite comfortably.

What does this mean though?

For me it means we're overreacting about Rafa. Whilst last season we were awful, we were awfully man-managed by AVB and Robbie prioritised the cup competitions. We've played 38 games this season already with a lot of our squad depth out on loan. We've got a good squad but three of our new first-teamers who are young and experiencing their first season in English football. The fans are on his back (quite rightly, I think he's pretty cretinous), been terrible with substitutions and is increasingly losing it in the media. But results in the league are ok. The only other competition that really matters is the Champion's League and we were already out of that by the time Rafa was appointed.

If we wait till the end of the season to say good bye to Rafa I'll be fine with that. Continuously sacking managers does very little good to the institution of the 'manager' position at Chelsea: we're already an iffy destination for the best managers and acting rashly again will not help in the long run to attract managers above the caliber of the FSW.