Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon today admitted his five-year plan to make the club self-sufficient will not hit its target

When he arrived from Manchester United four years ago, Kenyon said the club would be able to pay their own way by 2010 having already used Roman Abramovich's riches to have conquered the world.

But at a time when the world is in recession, Kenyon today admitted: "It's not a precise science. We said we would invest in the team and get that successful, and we've done a reasonable job.

"We have been working towards self-funding, but the reality is that no one is recession-proof.

"We are in as good a position as anybody else but we still have to be diligent."

Kenyon added he did not expect manager Luiz Felipe Scolari to sign any players in January.

He said: "I don't see us being active then. I don't think there is a need unless that changes through events like injuries."

Meanwhile, Salomon Kalou says Chelsea are relishing their transformation into the Premier League's great entertainers.

Under Avram Grant, the Blues finished two points behind Manchester United last term but their goal difference was 19 short of the champions' total.

Luiz Felipe Scolari, however, has given Chelsea licence to attack and that has paid dividends as the team have charged to the top of table with 19 goals from eight League games.

Three of those have come from Kalou, who said: "You can just see by the number of goals we have scored this season how much we have improved.

"Last term, Manchester United's goal difference was so much better than ours and it was like another point to them.

"It put us under even more pressure. We knew we couldn't just draw level with them, we had to overtake them and in the end that was what made the difference.

"Now we are the ones who have the best goal difference and we aim to keep it that way."