It's Sunday evening at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Chelsea FC have just defeated their London city rivals 3-0 in the derby. But Chelsea's trainer Thomas Tuchel looks tense, as if something is bothering him that he cannot rest. He didn't like the first half at all, he explains - too carelessly, not awake enough: "As a team we didn't have the energy." During the break, when it was still 0-0, he had more effort from his players and Requires intensity. “We had to improve to deserve a better result. And that's what we did. We played a fantastic second half. "

Overall, Tuchel can be satisfied with the start of the Premier League season. The win against Tottenham was Chelsea's fourth in five games, with only Liverpool drawing a draw at the end of August. Before the big game against champions Manchester City this Saturday (1:30 pm), Chelsea lead the table; Level on points with Liverpool and Manchester United, one point ahead of underdog Brighton & Hove Albion and three points ahead of ManCity.

In five league games, Chelsea have scored twelve goals and only allowed one goal - that was in Liverpool when Mohamed Salah used a penalty. Last season, Chelsea had to accept very few goals after Tuchel took over the team in January after the expulsion of his predecessor Frank Lampard. The defensive stability has continued so far.

On the other hand, a weakness was the often insufficient exploitation of opportunities. In the summer, Tuchel made it clear to the club that he wanted to sign a center forward - and he did him a favor. After spending almost € 250m on transfers last year, Chelsea have signed Romelu Lukaku from Inter Milan for € 115m. So far, the brawny Belgian has delivered: Lukaku has scored four goals in six appearances - three in the league, one in the Champions League.

The German international Timo Werner, who moved from Leipzig to London a year ago, will hardly be able to get past him. In the Champions League group game against St. Petersburg, Werner only sat on the bench; In the league he played the full 90 minutes at the start, but in the four games after that he only managed 29 minutes. On Wednesday he played in Chelsea's league cup win against Aston Villa from the start and scored his first goal of the season, but that doesn't change that: Werner is threatened with the role of reservist.

Despite Lukaku's scoring debut, Chelsea are not dependent on him. Ten different players have already scored goals in the league, only more at Manchester City. That speaks for the variability in Tuchel's proven 3-4-2-1 system. Lukaku went so empty-handed against Tottenham, but with Thiago Silva, Antonio Rüdiger and N'Golo Kanté, two central defenders and a defensive midfielder met. All goals came in the second half after Tuchel came on as a substitute for Kanté during the break for Mason Mount, which was ineffective that day. Then Chelsea was superior, created a series of scoring chances and could have won higher. The victory was thanks to Tuchel, the Guardian wrote in an analysis: "He has shown tactical acumen by taking the game away from Tottenham at half-time."

Remarkable squad depth

You have to be able to afford a player like Kanté - one of the best defensive midfielders in the world for years - when necessary.

The Frenchman was absent in the previous game due to a groin problem, and Tuchel also wanted to spare him against Tottenham.

But as it was, Kanté became the decisive substitute for the game.

Timo Werner came into play for Kai Havertz 20 minutes before the end, and together the two Germans cost over 130 million euros.

Few rivals have that depth even in the Premier League, and one of them is Manchester City, Chelsea's opponents on Saturday.

In the course of a long season with league, Champions League and national cup competitions, this can become a decisive factor.

"The Premier League title race has only just begun, but Chelsea already seem to be hard to stop," former pro Alan Shearer told the BBC this week.

At this early point in the season, Chelsea have already taken on three so-called Big Six opponents: they defeated Arsenal 2-0, against Liverpool they played 1-1 despite a half-time undernumbered, and against Tottenham there was this convincing 3-0.

There may be a four-way battle between Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool in the end, Shearer said.

"But I'm sticking to what I said last summer: Chelsea are the team to be beaten."