Chelsea legend Pat Nevin is growing accustomed  to being liked, even if he is a little surprised about it. He explains in this week's column.

The weekend win against Aston Villa was our most significant of the fledgling season. There is little doubt that they are a side who feel they can make a decent attempt at breaking in to the top four, but the way they were put to the sword at the Bridge underlined there is still a good distance between the two sides.

The reactions once again in the press were generally very positive about the style of the team and these were just the latest in a growing line from the journos. Do you think there is maybe a possibility that Chelsea are now being respected by even those who do not wear blue-tinted spectacles?

There was a time when the club was, let's be honest, pretty much hated by large sections of the media and by other fans in general. It wasn't worth taking this too personally because there were reasons for the dislike.

Jealousy about the club's rapid rise to the dizzying heights of European superclub was always to be expected. The injection of large sums of money that was in their eyes 'foreign' also attracted more than the odd sneer but most football folk said they just didn't like Chelsea's style of winning.

This was 'filtered' down to the argument that the team was not entertaining and the proof was that when Chelsea went one or maybe two-nil ahead there was seldom an appetite to go for more.

Football lovers, as opposed to football fans, and there is an important subtle difference, want to watch an entertaining side maybe even more than watch a winning side. As such Chelsea set up with a very similar 4-3-3 system as before, but now under the new boss and his more positive approach, we appear to have ever so slightly softened the hearts of the purists.

You have to understand that in Britain it is very hard to be universally loved if you are a real winner unless you have battled to get there from an underdogs position or if you do it with a certain flare, style and panache.

Back in the 1970s Leeds United were the most successful side, but outside their home county of Yorkshire they were arguably the most hated club in history. Successful they may have been, but arrogant and cynical were the descriptions more commonly used within the football fraternity and beyond.

Spool forward to Manchester United before the Chelsea revolution, and even with their history, they had become intensely disliked. Again whether fair or not, the accusations of arrogance were levelled at a club just off the M62 motorway.

Without a doubt there has been a softening of the stance in general towards our club since the arrival of Scolari. Without being fans exactly, journalists, commentators and pundits have been fairly quick to sing the praises since the advent of the Brazilian influence and I must say I am slightly surprised.

I thought it would take a very long time to turn those negative attitudes towards the club, attitudes that have taken a few years to build, but I might just have been wrong. I say this without getting carried away of course, some press men will always hate Chelsea, simply because they always have, that is just the life of a real football fan-turned-journalist and oddly enough I respect that.

There is however no doubt that the tide has turned and people are warming to the sight of Ashley Cole and José Bosingwa bombing forward at every opportunity as well as the craft of a midfield packed with world-class entertainers. Maybe it is something very simple; maybe it is that real football lovers in the UK and anywhere in the world for that matter, see the Brazilian style favoured by Scolari as the way the game should be played. A style that has class, skill, purity of purpose and well, style I suppose.

Competing in the football world at the highest level isn't of course a popularity contest, but in the business world, then it partially is. You have got to be successful and likable if you are going to continue to grow in to a real world player.

Barcelona are a classic case, a huge club throughout the planet and others who have won more Champions Leagues more than the Catalans cannot understand why they are so popular, but clearly it is their style, their love of winning, but winning beautifully that also enables them to wins friends.

It is early days, and we should never disregard or even downplay what José Mourinho did for the club, but maybe even if it is not as successful in the very short term, the current Chelsea set up will propel the club not just to longer term success, but also to being loved while getting there. Certainly the first signs are there to be seen in the British press and they would admit themselves they do not always have the easiest hearts to soften.

Last week's competition was to name Chelsea's top scoring midfielder ever and it was of course Frank Lampard who recently overtook Dennis Wise, many people thought it was such an easy question there must be a trick, but no, Frankie boy it was and the winner picked at random, by a 13-year-old girl who dragged herself out of her sick bed to do it, was Stephen Laurie from Surrey.

To win a Blue Pride season review DVD this week could you tell me, what will the score be when England play Kazakhstan on Saturday and will Frank Lampard score? Answers as ever to pat.nevin@chelseafc.com and of course they have to be in before the game starts.

As ever good luck to the lads on their up and coming internationals, and more than anything, come back safely.