C helsea must appear to Manchester United as a Terminator rolling out from under a blazing oil tanker, shoving an eye back in and remounting its Harley Davidson with shotgun primed. The old aura of power and indestructibility is returning.

The Premier League leaders were ordered by their new chief executive last week to "shoot for the stars". But Roman Abramovich had to pay the stars first. Huge new contracts have been awarded to the team's glitterati to fuel the resurgence United face in London today.

The big push is on at Stamford Bridge. Abramovich's inner circle of long-servers can glimpse the end of their Chelsea days and a core of diehards have been financially doped to restore the club's hegemony, which ended with the second of Jose Mourinho's Premier League title wins in 2006.

In the past 12 months big new deals and contract extensions have been dished out to Frank Lampard, John Terry, Didier Drogba, Ashley Cole, Florent Malouda, Alex and even Salomon Kalou. Joe Cole, 28 today, is next on Abramovich's list. The Russian owner tired of being fleeced in the international transfer market. To end a three-year run with only a couple of FA Cups to show for his £150m annual wage bill, the oligarch turned back to the strength within.

The fruit of forking out these fidelity premiums has been 14 wins in 17 matches in all competitions, a smooth Champions League progression, leadership of the domestic title race and 17 goals with none conceded in four outings before the 2-2 draw at Atletico Madrid. As with all things in the English game, there is a risk of over-statement. The victims in the recent 4-0, 5-0, 4-0 and 4-0 thrashings were Bolton (twice), a disintegrating Atletico and Blackburn. Errant defending at set plays were at the root of two league away defeats, at Wigan and Aston Villa.

But the sense of renewal is palpable. Chelsea's players, remember, can see that Liverpool are diminished, Arsenal raw and United below their best. Drogba, who signed for an extra two years in August, is unstoppable, with 12 goals in 13 matches. Ancelotti's midfield diamond has unleashed the defence-trashing power of Drogba and Nicolas Anelka and rendered the side more expressive. These are feats that were beyond Luiz Felipe Scolari, Abramovich's original choice to wipe away the greyness of the Avram Grant era.

On Friday came another victory: the suspension of the club's transfer ban, courtesy of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which allows Chelsea to stockpile new talent in January in case the FIFA penalty is eventually enforced. Ancelotti, though, says reinforcements are "not necessary", despite the impending loss of four players for six to eight games in January for the Africa Cup of Nations. Here, Abramovich is reaping the harvest of hiring a manager who is accustomed to coaching the players he already has. In Serie A, incoming coaches seldom start with the obligatory English declaration about transfer war chests.

"I think he [Ancelotti] has done a good job quickly and he is helped because he has had experienced players round him," says Alex Ferguson. "They can understand a change of tactics better than younger players. If you look at Ballack and Deco, they come from places where tactics are more of an issue. Anelka and Drogba have played abroad so it's not surprising they have adapted.

"It's the same as how he operated in Milan, with the difference being that at Milan he had Kaka. That made a hell of a difference to what he was able to do at Milan and the point I would make is that Chelsea are still looking for someone in a forward role to balance their team better. They have tried Lampard there, they have tried Deco there, they have even tried Malouda there and now they have brought in Joe Cole. But they have the experience to cope."

Recently, Ancelotti defined his tactical thinking: "I prefer to play with two strikers and one midfielder behind the strikers. These [Chelsea] players can play in this system, with a diamond in midfield."

Liberation was Scolari's aim, too, but the players rejected the culture shock, with a lone striker, and insufficient attention to defensive drills.

At Chelsea's Cobham training ground on Friday, a faintly tense Ancelotti waved away the theory that his side are now more entertaining than United. "Exciting play arrives because you can use players with quality. We can use those players but so can Manchester United. I don't think we are playing the more exciting football."

Yet Chelsea are outscoring their northern foe and can move five points clear if they extend their record of not losing to United at Stamford Bridge in nine games stretching back to 2002. The muscularity and relentlessness of the Chelsea midfield has been one of United's toughest obstacles and has encouraged Ferguson to set up more cautiously against Lampard, Ballack and Essien for fear of being swamped. Ancelotti insists that Arsenal will play a hand in this title race, but already the debate is about whether United can maintain their narrow superiority over Arsene Wenger's neighbours.

The return of Joe Cole revives the cliche of an influential player returning with the glow of a new acquisition. "I trust in his quality. He's a very good runner and he's dynamic," Ancelotti says. "His return is very important for the club. The same is true of Paulo Ferreira. For that reason I say we don't need other players."

Yet the age profile of United's opponents this afternoon encourages urgency in a team of Champions League nearly men. For three consecutive seasons, Chelsea have chased home Ferguson's men in domestic combat. Lampard is 31, Michael Ballack 33, Anelka 30, Drogba 31, Deco 32, Carvalho 31. Joe Cole, Ashley Cole, Florent Malouda and Terry are all in the golden 28-29 range. Essien, at 26, is the pup.

At Milan, Ancelotti presided over a gerontocracy, so he can hardly be expected to agree that time is running out for the team Mourinho mostly built. He says: "Terry is a young player, Lampard is a young player, so is Ashley Cole. When a player is 30 years old he is in the centre of his career. Ten years ago he was an old player. Not now. With the new physical training and other things 30 years old is the best moment of your career."

But this ignores the reality that United and Arsenal are more adept at self-renewal. The youth programmes of those institutions shame Chelsea's poor record of feeding home-grown players into the first XI. Their transfer ban stemmed from the over-zealous pursuit of Gael Kakuta, a gifted youngster from France who was the club's Scholar of the Year last season and has earned glowing reviews. As the Terry-Lampard generation continue to feast on Abramovich's largesse, there has been panic further down the age line, as the owner's entourage grapple with the latest loss (£65.7m) and seek the mythical break-even moment in a business that has paid £23.1m in compensation to sacked coaches, and returns 70 per cent of its turnover to players.

The revival started not with Ancelotti but Guus Hiddink, who, in his five months, understood the team's core strengths and saw that not too much was wrong with his best 20 players. According to Ferguson, Ancelotti will not feel Mourinho's shadow, as Grant and Scolari did. "I don't think Carlo is worried about that at all; he has his own CV. It is impressive, he has won two European Cups and the Scudetto and how many European medals has he got? His European pedigree is unquestionable."

To most eyes today's collision is a battle of the two best teams in the league, and therefore a synopsis of the fight to win this year's Premier League. Mourinho's Chelsea "raised the bar" between 2004 and 2006, Ferguson said at the time, and now United's pre-eminence is again under assault from a team stabilised by Hiddink and Ancelotti and spurred on by lavish contract extensions.

The task was never to buy a new winning machine but to recalibrate the one that lost its effectiveness when Grant and Scolari were playing with the levers. If Chelsea are a team that runs itself, as many believe, the leaders appear remotivated to leave behind the agonies of the Champions League final penalty shoot-out defeat to United in Moscow and the injustice of last season's semi-final loss to Barcelona.

They always had the power, now they just need the glory back.

Chelsea v Manchester United,

Sky Sports 1, 4.0

Sunday Independent