Rafael Benitez will, of course, see it very differently given his mantra of never relinquishing Liverpool's title chances but Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has already written off his rival's chances of winning the Premier League this season.
Ferguson guided Manchester United to a fourth straight title last season, while Benitez's Liverpool finished four points behind. That has led Ferguson to predict Chelsea will provide the sterner test this season.
He said: "Liverpool have just had probably their best season for 20 years, finished up with 86 points and still finished four adrift.
"It will be hard for them to match that, let alone improve. Other teams will read Liverpool better. It has to be Chelsea as the main threat."
Ferguson is aware of Chelsea's new manager Carlo Ancelotti's record in Italy. The Italian won two European Cups and a Serie A title with Milan and the Scot admitted that Ancelotti will change the way Chelsea play.
He told the Sun: "They will play the Milan way. It brought him two European Cups - it should have been three, because they should never have lost to Liverpool. So why should he change?"
Despite Cristiano Ronaldo's departure to Real Madrid this summer, Ferguson has backed his younger players to come to the fore this season.
He said: "We knew we could never replace Ronaldo. No matter what anyone says about the lad, for me he is the best footballer in the world. When you've had someone who is the best at what he does, it is no good trying to find someone to do the same job.
"And when you know you can't replace someone or something, you look for a different way. People have misread our situation and they have underestimated our ability to improve players. That is an area where we have proved successful in the past.
"We are expecting a lot from [Jonny] Evans, [Danny] Welbeck, [Darron] Gibson, [Federico] Macheda and the Da Silva brothers. And Nani and Anderson have already shown good things but they will improve next season."
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