Chelsea bracing for more Spurs pressure
Title race shifts into overdrive this weekend
LONDON — Midfielder Cesc Fabregas said Chelsea won’t buckle under the strain of Tottenham’s relentless pursuit as the Premier League title race ratchets up another notch this weekend.
With just eight games remaining, Chelsea is clinging to a seven-point lead over second-place Tottenham, but the Blues are showing a few signs of vulnerability.
Antonio Conte’s side ground out a lackluster 2-1 win over Manchester City on Wednesday, just days after crashing to a 2-1 home loss against struggling Crystal Palace.
Meanwhile, Tottenham has reeled off five straight victories, including an incredible escape act at Swansea on Wednesday when it scored three times in the final minutes to clinch a 3-1 triumph.
With Chelsea playing on Saturday evening at Bournemouth, Tottenham has the chance to turn up the heat again by temporarily trimming the lead to four points with a win against Watford at White Hart Lane a few hours earlier.
Fabregas admits his team has been feeling the heat lately, but he is confident the way it recovered from the Palace setback proved title nerves won’t trigger a stunning meltdown in the final weeks of the season.
“The result on Saturday put a lot of pressure on us. We know we still have a good advantage, but this is the Premier League and you don’t want to be giving points away, especially at home,” Fabregas said on Thursday.
“We have character. We can bounce back at anything that comes in front of us.”
The Premier League era is littered with epic collapses from teams that thought the title was theirs. With Chelsea needing six wins (18 points) to be certain of top spot, Fabregas isn’t getting carried away yet.
“We’ve been saying it since the beginning of the season — it’s one game at a time,” he said.
“We have to worry about ourselves, not what the others are doing. We control our own destiny as long as we keep winning. If we do that, we don’t have to worry about what other clubs are doing.”
‘Massive quality’
Tottenham’s title hopes looked over until Dele Alli equalized in the 88th minute and Son Heung-min and Christian Eriksen struck in stoppage time to kill off Swansea.
The wild celebrations from boss Mauricio Pochettino, his coaching staff and Tottenham’s players and fans underlined their relief at a result that allows them to continue dreaming of a first English title since 1961.
Having choked last season when it failed to catch champion Leicester in the closing weeks, Pochettino’s side is back in the hunt.
“Chelsea looks very strong but we can’t stop pushing and dreaming of the league,” said Tottenham defender Jan Vertonghen.
“They have a couple of difficult games coming up. We have to keep winning and hopefully they get a bit stressed.
“I don’t know what is necessary to win the league, other than maybe a bit of luck, but I think our group has shown massive quality and is very special.”
Meanwhile, the battle for Champions League qualification via the top four seems certain to go right down to the wire.
Third-place Liverpool, six points above fifth-place Arsenal, can’t afford another slip when it faces Stoke after allowing Bournemouth a late equalizer in a midweek 2-2 draw.
Reds boss Jurgen Klopp urged his team to emulate Chelsea’s steely streak when points are on the line.
“Probably if it was Chelsea, for example, the opponent would not have the ball three times in the last 20 minutes, I think. We don’t have this experience,” Klopp said.
Fourth-place Manchester City, which hosts Hull, is without a win in four games and sits only four points above Arsenal, which has a game in hand and travels to Crystal Palace on Monday.
Manchester United is sixth and heads to cellar-dwelling Sunderland aiming to add to the problems of former United boss David Moyes, who is now with the Black Cats.