Worried about Chelsea's season? Don't be - things are on the up

It's probably fair to say that the season hasn't been a major success thus far. We're in decent position in the Premier League, but not running away with things. We've qualified for the knockout rounds in Europe, but some poor results and performances have taken some of the gloss off. We're in the quarterfinals of the League Cup, but nobody cares about the League Cup. It's December 2nd, and the season to date, has been... ok.

But let's put that in a bit of perspective. Via the Premier League's handy table position database, we can see how things looked on December 2nd, 2012.

And December 2nd, 2011?

The points don't really mean much -- the only thing we care about in the league is (or should be) finishing in first place. And on this day a year ago, Chelsea were ten points behind first place. They were facing that same deficit on December 2nd, 2011 as well. This time around, we're in second place, four points behind Arsenal.

The performances haven't been uniformly great, but for the first time in years, our November slumber hasn't knocked us completely out of contention for the title. It's hard to deny that that's progress.