Surely winning the Premier League title is plain sailing once you've set the pace with five wins in your opening five games? Chelsea were four rather than two points clear at this stage last term, yet their early feeling of invincibility seemed to make that first defeat all the more difficult to recover from. They entered a massive slump afterwards, eventually recovering to finish nine points behind Manchester United. The team that has been top of the table after five matches has been crowned champions in just one of the last five seasons, and only three times in the last decade.

Equally importantly, the Red Devils' recent results contradict their tried and tested formula for finishing first, which generally involves hitting top form over the winter as the early pacesetters - usually Arsenal and Chelsea - begin to come unstuck. Are they in danger of committing the cardinal sin of peaking too soon? The statistic that they have failed to win the league on three of the last five occasions that they have won four or more of their first five fixtures certainly doesn't bode well.

Manchester United have 15 points in the bag already, yet that is no great surprise given that they have played games that they took 13 points from last season. The main test of their title-retaining credentials will come on the road, where they were just the fifth strongest in 2010-11, with victories at West Brom and Bolton hardly proof that they are back on track as both are pointless at home.

Wayne Rooney's form so far this campaign has been stunning, with the 25-year-old scoring nine times already, accounting for 43% of his side's goals. By contrast, even when Berbatov was the joint-top marksman in the division in 2010-11, his contribution only covered 26% of their total tally. Such a strike rate is almost impossible to sustain as it is but Manchester United's reliance on him means that a drastic loss of form like the one suffered a year ago or an injury could cause huge problems, especially as Berbatov's confidence appears to have been wounded by his diminishing role.

Manchester United fans will no doubt feel aggrieved that despite participating in three of the last four Champions League Finals, including the most recent, they are a distant 8.2 to enjoy a fourth triumph in the competition. Yet historic trends justify that lack of faith. Just once in the 56-year history of the tournament have the runners-up returned to take the trophy 12 months later, when Fabio Capello helped AC Milan bounce back quickly in 1993-94. The wounds inflicted by a final loss rarely heal swiftly, with five of the last nine victims failing to even reach the quarter-finals the following year.

Manchester United have fallen short in the FA Cup in each of the last seven seasons, marking their longest run without lifting the trophy in 35 years. As they have never won the Carling Cup the year after surrendering the silverware, the indication is that the Premier League provides their only real chance of domestic success.