Simple questions can often prove the hardest to answer and English rugby's flagship competition is a case in point. How does anyone stop Leicester?

The Premiership might have a new sponsor this season – insurance giants Aviva – but whether it will boast a new champion club in nine months' time is highly debatable.

It is difficult to bet against the Tigers – one leading bookmaker has already installed them as 15-8 title favourites – given their enviable Premiership pedigree.

They have been crowned champions nine times in 23 seasons of English league rugby – three more than any other club – and contested every Premiership final for the past six years.

This term, they are on the trail of a title hat-trick, and despite summer departures like Lewis Moody, Ben Kay and Aaron Mauger, they still possess a squad packed with enviable riches.

While each new campaign always brings optimism that it might be somebody else's turn, Tigers time and time again are there when it matters, setting the standards for others to follow.

Last season it was Saracens, revitalised under their South African supremo Brendan Venter, who came closest to halting Leicester's title march, succeeding London Irish in that role from the previous campaign.

Ultimately though, Tigers still made off with the English game's biggest prize, and their vice-like grip on it will take some releasing.

If the bookies are to be believed, then Bath, Northampton and Saracens – in that order of preference – are the only clubs with a realistic chance.

It has been a long time between drinks for Bath, winners of six league crowns during the 1980s and 1990s, but whose last league trophy arrived at the Recreation Ground 14 years ago.

An eventful few months have witnessed the arrival of a new owner in multi-millionaire businessman Bruce Craig, Sir Ian McGeechan's appointment as performance director and current England captain Moody also signing on the dotted line.

Everything, it would appear, is in place for Bath to knock Leicester off their perch, but they must be far more consistent than last term when pre-Christmas relegation fears were banished by an unlikely charge into the Premiership play-offs.