That's the received wisdom, anyway, although Adelaide United proved the exception to the rule last season when they took out the A-League championship having failed to win in their first eight games of the campaign.

It is a tribute to the Adelaide board – given the trigger-happy nature of soccer clubs the world over – that they didn't pull the pin on Guillermo Amor after those first couple of months and allowed the Spaniard to build patiently on the style he was trying to implement at Coopers Stadium.

It is instructive to remember that in late November last year Melbourne Victory was on top of the table, Adelaide was bouncing along at the bottom and Victory, who had also just won the FFA Cup, were widely regarded as hot favourites for the championship while the Reds looked to have the job ahead of them to even snare a finals position.

All of which goes to show that too much should not be read into early-season form, at least in making definitive judgments.

Certainly that's the view that will be popular in both Adelaide and Melbourne before the champions host Victory on Saturday night in the city of churches given the start both clubs have had to this new campaign.

Victory has made a most un-Victory like start, surrendering a winning position in the final seconds of stoppage time in their opening game in Brisbane and then losing heavily in the Melbourne derby to Melbourne City last week.

Adelaide United got a point away from home against Newcastle before losing in front of their own fans against a Western Sydney Wanderers side that can perhaps count itself fortunate not to have finished the match with 11 men after two heavy fouls by Jack Clisby early in the game and Brendon Santalab late on, just before the super sub scored the winning goal.

Even the normally unflappable Amor, one of the most easy-going coaches in the game, was irate about the lack of action that cost the Reds three points and left them, along with Victory, near the foot of the embryonic table.

Adelaide are finding out, as all champions do, that being the hunter is easier than being the hunted.

They crept up on everyone last season, but this year they have been the scalp to take.

And things have not been easy, even before a ball was kicked.  Like so many champion teams, the Reds lost several of their grand final-winning team as overseas clubs and local rivals cherry picked the men who won the title.

Bruce Kamau left and went to Melbourne City, while Craig Goodwin and Stefan Mauk  went to  the Netherlands. Bruce Djite took up an opening in South Korea while Pablo Sanchez, the Spaniard who scored the sealer after coming off the bench, also quit.

These are all big shoes to fill, and while the signing of Sergi Guardiola looks, on the early evidence, as though it might be a decent bit of business, Adelaide have also been hit by injury.

Argentinian playmaker Marcelo Carrusca is out for several more weeks while Sergio Cirio, another member of that title-winning team, will miss half a season after being injured against the Wanderers.

Amor will be looking for several youngsters to step up and also for newly signed ex-Socceroo James Holland to make a huge impression on his return to the A-League. But having proved that a title can be won by stealth last season, no one will be writing off Adelaide – or Victory – just yet.