FLYING HAZARD
Belgian star on target again as Chelsea see off Bournemouth to move within five wins of the Premier League title
ANOTHER one ticked off and another step closer. Just five more wins will do the trick, just 15 more points to wrap up the title.
Tottenham are doing their bit to keep it interesting and good on them. But there has long been a sense of the inevitable about this campaign and with each fixture it is getting harder to suspend rational belief. Chelsea will, surely, get it done.
They are the best and have been at almost every checkpoint since Manchester City imploded in winter. It has looked easy because it has been, and rarely has that been better illustrated than the moment partway through the first half here when David Luiz decided impulsively to change his hairstyle.
Just like that, and ever so casually, he made the call to switch from hanging loose to ponytail. Curls in his eyes? Possibly. Just as likely he wanted something to do, because by that point Chelsea were walking away with another one, two goals to the good after 20 minutes.
One was given as an Adam Smith own goal, the other was the masterful work of N’Golo Kante and Eden Hazard. A canter on Grand National day.
It got harder, in fairness to Bournemouth. They pulled one back with Josh King’s 10th goal in 11 games and made a fight of it early in the second half. But just as there was the whiff of pressure, Marcos Alonso scored a quite magnificent free-kick. Quality on tap. It really is a race for second.
The luxuries of their calendar can’t be underplayed in all this, of course. The Chelsea bean counters won’t necessarily see beauty in a year without Champions League football, but Antonio Conte has had the rare joy and benefit of being able to keep a settled side throughout the campaign. Take his line-up here, for instance.
The Italian made two changes to the side that beat Manchester City, with Nemanja Matic and Victor Moses coming in for Kurt Zouma and Cesc Fabregas, and was able to field an 11 of which nine had started at least 25 League games. Not ideal for folk on the fringes, but when the chosen few play the way they have, why change a thing?
The first 45 minutes of this one were largely controlled by Chelsea, barring a handful of troublesome moments. One was a miscued clearance from Luiz that forced Thibaut Courtois into a brilliant save in the first minute, another was a Benik Afobe volley against the post and the other was King’s goal 40 minutes later. That already counted for a better return than most teams manage against Chelsea.
But what played out either side and in between those chances was predominantly in Chelsea’s favour, peaking with two goals in the space of three minutes.
The first, on 17 minutes, was pretty in its creation if not its finish. The move was started by Luiz pinging crossfield to Moses, who took a couple of touches before squaring to Diego Costa. With one touch he spun past Simon Francis and his second drew a heavy deflection from Adam Smith which took the ball past Artur Boruc. It was credited as an own goal.
The second was far more aesthetic. Kante broke the lines with a floated pass from central midfield, helped by some questionable positioning by Francis. The rest was done by Hazard, first in terms of his control and then with his destruction of Boruc, with a stutter tricking the Pole into going to ground before he rounded him and finished. It was his 14th League goal of the season — his best figure for a campaign.
The popular argument will surely now continue over who means more — Kante, the omnipresent, or Hazard, the wrecking ball? What a luxury to have both of them in the same team.
At that stage, it all seemed a little too easy. Chelsea were creating waves of attacks, playing in nice patterns.
But Bournemouth were sounding alarms of their own. The clearest warning came from Afobe, who cracked a volley against the post after 28 minutes and saw the ball roll back across the line. Close enough for Conte to start yelling.
Then came their breakthrough and a wonderful finish by King, who had been given a shade too much space to shoot by Luiz on the edge of the Chelsea area. The shot deflected off Luiz’s thigh before hitting the top corner but it was a superb strike nonetheless. Could Bournemouth irritate points out of gilded opposition for the second time in the space of a week?
For 15 minutes or so in the second half it looked distinctly possible. They created one opening for King and then another for Charlie Daniels, who had a shot blocked.
But Chelsea don’t roll over like some do. They wrapped this one up on 68 minutes, with a free-kick that really was a thing of beauty. From 25 yards out, Alonso whipped his shot over the tallest point of the wall — Francis — on its way in. Conte raised two fists, Eddie Howe could do nothing but shake his head and smile.
Chelsea do that to teams.