Duff shines in five-star display

Wolves - 0 Chelsea - 5 Something peculiar is going on when a team wins by a country mile and then the manager faces questions about how long he has in the job.

Claudio Ranieri is entitled to be bemused because, one by one, all the misgivings about Chelsea's title aspirations - whether he could "keep all his players happy" and how they might be undermined by disaffected egos - are being left in their wake.

So enthralling was their football on Saturday perhaps the only credible doubt now as to whether Chelsea can win their first title since 1955 comes in terms of their durability, and how they will fare when it gets to what Alex Ferguson describes as "squeaky bum time".

It is also unlikely they will encounter hosts as generous as Wolves again. But for the time being Chelsea are, as Frank Lampard dared point out, "serious contenders", while Ranieri, to his immense credit, has handled himself immaculately amid all the speculation that a cuckoo by the name of Sven-Goran Eriksson is fluttering around his nest.

Ranieri fully justified the public vote of confidence that came, belatedly, from one of Roman Abramovich's associates on Saturday, just as it had not seemed misplaced when Chelsea's fans serenaded him with "We don't need Eriksson." Ranieri thumped his fist into his hand when he heard that one. "It's because they are intelligent," he cackled.

Mostly, it is because regular Chelsea watchers must recognise what a commendable job he is making of integrating his new signings. It was said the Italian might run into problems when it came to leaving out some of his stars, but it was a difficult theory to support at Molineux, even before this mismatch began.

In the warm-up the substitutes Hernan Crespo, Robert Huth, Emmanuel Petit and Joe Cole played keepie-up and the player who let the ball bounce (usually the centre-back Huth) had to bend down on all fours while his team-mates took turns to flick his left ear.

This was hardly the stuff of a disenchanted quartet and Crespo did not spoil the effect, producing two emphatic right-foot finishes during his 25 minutes of play as a second-half substitute.

Others, such as Lampard and Jesper Gronkjaer, seem invigorated by their team's supposed vulnerability. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink has gone through a centre-forward's metamorphosis and back again, teeing up Lampard for a splendid goal and making it 2-0 with a left-foot drive. Eidur Gudjohnsen, meanwhile, did just about everything a modern-day striker should be capable of, bar scoring.

For the Wanderers, with one point from their opening six games and no goals in seven hours and 49 minutes, there was a different type of earache.

Their manager Dave Jones needed little invitation to outline his grievances, accusing his players of "hiding" and adding that anyone who continued to do so "could get out the door now".

It was time to "stand up and be counted," he said, and "to never give up". Fair enough, but more perspiration will not disguise an overwhelming lack of inspiration.

Not one of the Wolves players seems comfortable on the ball, watching Paul Ince is like seeing a clapped-out boxer desperate for one last payday and, in the only team in the country not to score a home goal, the Norwegian Steffen Iversen is becoming a fans' scapegoat.

"It could be all over before Christmas," Steve Bull, the former Wolves striker, lamented on his way home. How they could do with a Bully now. Or even one player who truly belongs at this level.

The defenders will not forget the day they came up against Chelsea and, specifically, the impressive Damien Duff, scorer of the third goal and a general irritant all afternoon.

Is it just a coincidence that there was an advertisement for "accident repair specialists" on Jones's dugout? Because right now the rest of the Premiership are rubber-necking at the wreckage of Wolves' early season.