The worst kept secret in football is out; Chelsea are Champions.

Like so many of the titles won by Manchester United in the 90’s, the inevitability of the Blues winning back-to-back Championships was clear from the day they rose to the top of the Premiership, a place that they were never going to falter from or relinquish easily.

Talk of a title race was wishful thinking; a smokescreen to hide just how far ahead of the other nineteen top-flight clubs Chelsea really are. Manchester United briefly held faint dreams of toppling the Londoners to cap the comeback of all comebacks, but it was more in hope than expectation.

Chelsea’s mini blip, when a few points went by the wayside and United rallied, did little more than add some respectability to the gap between first and second, but whatever the final points totals at the top of the Premiership will be after 7 May, they won’t tell the whole story.

The Blues have done the decent thing and claimed that it was harder to win the Premiership this season that it was last season, but not only have they made it look remarkably easy, the reality is that it has been far too simple a task.

Not only have Chelsea beaten all of their closest rivals this season, doing doubles over Liverpool and Arsenal in the process, they have enjoyed a magnificent record at Stamford Bridge, a fortress home for the Blues where they have dropped just two points all season.

It is that remarkable consistency that has won Chelsea the Premiership. While their so-called challengers have stumbled through the season dropping points Chelsea never would have let slip, the Blues ruthless execution of Mourinho’s game plan has always kept the Stamford Bridge club head and shoulders above the rest.

Yet somehow, despite all the euphoria, congratulations, and sheer unbridled joy of their supporters, not all it entirely happy at the Bridge. There is a feeling that Chelsea haven’t received the credit from pundits and neutrals for what they’ve achieved, or the respect of their ultimately well-beaten rivals. For some that is because of Chelsea’s style; for others, it’s because of the foundations this success story is being built on.

Efficiency rather than fantasy is what Chelsea have developed their campaign around, and it’s a formula that has served them well. Why be the team with the fanciest footwork and finish mid-table when you can grind opponents down, carve them open and finish them off week after week after week?

That can’t detract, however, from the persistent associations made between Chelsea’s sporting success and the size of their bank balance that has always, and probably will always, haunt the club in a manner that their manager finds unacceptable.

Mourinho wants to be seen as a great manager for masterminding a Chelsea trophy haul, and putting the club on the world stage for their achievements on the pitch, but instead he’s stuck in the shadows of a Russian billionaire whose money has bankrolled the Blues' exorbitant spending.

The trouble for Mourinho is that his wish is very unlikely to ever come true. Again this summer Chelsea will lead the way in the transfer market, with Ballack’s impending arrival the first of what will undoubtedly be a few high profile acquisitions. Whatever Chelsea offer for a player can’t be matched by anyone else, leaving their squad as the most expensively assembled in a Premiership that they will once more be red hot favourites to win.

There is no separation between what happens on the pitch and off it as far as Chelsea’s critics are concerned. They would argue that Mourinho will only be recognized as a truly great manager when he brings achievements to the club without a bottomless pit of money, but then the Portuguese supremo would presumably feel that it is harsh to judge him in those terms when he’s working at a club whose lavish financial circumstances existed before he even arrived.

Perhaps Mourinho was naïve in joining Chelsea believing that people would turn a blind eye to their spending to focus solely on what they do with a football; it’s a nice sentiment but never likely to happen.

That won’t stop the Chelsea bandwagon rolling on though. Mourinho might have intimated he’s been tempted to walk away, but being a martyr for his principles is hardly his style. He knows when he’s on to a good thing, and there is no doubt he has the greatest chance of more trophies by staying in West London.

His squad is supreme and its potential still largely unexplored in a season that for the likes of Terry, Lampard, Makelele, Cole and yes, even Drogba, has been one of ultimately just reward. It’s up to their compatriots in England’s other powerhouse clubs to come up with a formula to match what the Chelsea players have given to their cause, and that will be the Premiership’s toughest challenge yet.

Mourinho has drilled his men into an unmistakable winning habit, and the temporary let down of losing to Blackburn in the post-celebration haze of their victory party won’t dampen the feeling that they are masters of all they survey.

Domestically they are untouchable, cup debacles aside, and even though in Europe that same fearsome reputation doesn’t quite pay dividends, that’s a situation Chelsea have within their power to change in targets for next season that will include a hat-trick of Championships and a dramatic continental improvement.

For most teams the mark of greatness is considered to be retention of the title and winning the European Cup, but for Chelsea the goalposts appear to have been moved; the day they manage all that without spending millions will be the moment that the universal acclaim they crave finally rains down on Stamford Bridge.