Joe Cole believes both Frank Lampard and Roman Abramovich deserve plenty of credit for Chelsea's impressive start to the season.
The Blues won 2-0 at Newcastle to record their sixth win of the season and for top, at least momentarily.
Lampard is only in his second year as Chelsea boss but was heavily backed in the summer.
Over £250m was spent on the likes of Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Hakim Ziyech as the west Londoners made up for lost time following last summer's transfer embargo.
And Cole has credited Lampard with piecing the cogs together and Abramovich for backing his young manager.
“They’ve looked so good. We’ve sung the praises of Thiago Silva and Reece James, but everyone’s scoring in the forward positions. It’s just a very steady ship at the moment," he said on BT Sport.
"Frank has to take a lot of credit for that. The ownership has to take a lot of credit for that for sticking by Frank, just giving him the money to spend.
"In that first season, he did a great job, bringing in the youngsters, blooding them, bringing stability and he’s now added the quality of Ziyech and Havertz.
"Chelsea now look a real threat, I don’t think people will be wrong by saying Chelsea will be in for a shout of it come the end of the season.
"There’s so much quality going all the way through the team now.”
Chelsea have only won the title twice since 2010 - under Jose Mourinho in 2015 and in 2017 when Antonio Conte was in charge.
The Blues have continued to amass plenty of silverware, but have shown signs that they could be poised for another challenge in what is a rare season.
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