I also didn't think that Chelsea would improve this drastically and maybe it's not just me. Nicholas Jackson, who was not very visible last season, has now become a goal scoring machine, as well as Cole Palmer, who looks increasingly mature and more stable. If they only target the top 4, it is very likely that they can achieve it. If it's the Premier League champions, it seems the chances are still quite tough because Liverpool is so strong this season and it still remains to be seen how long Chelsea can be consistent.
Almost everyone literally has been surprised at the drastic improvement of Chelsea because all the while they have been really poor and unproductive few seasons back and it was so bad that even if we had expected improvements from them it wouldn't have been this drastic, but anyways it's a good one they are now this better and productive such that they are now amongst the top four teams this season.
This season Chelsea and Liverpool has been proven that changing the manager is not always bringing negative impact for team performance and we can see it that currently the performance of these teams is very impressive especially Chelsea that with the current squad people are very doubt Maresca can able to bringing Chelsea to performing well even some of us has been predict Maresca will be sacked before this season ended but in fact Chelsea is very fantastic this season although i didn't considers them as strong contender for the title but Chelsea potentially can finish at top 4 at the end of this season