PREMIER LEAGUE SINGING IN THE REIGN
Conte won’t make song & dance about title
ANTONIO CONTE can’t hear the Fat Lady singing – but only because she’s having one last gargle before taking the stage.
Chelsea maintained their stranglehold on the title race - and in doing so put a big blue cross through one of those games that Conte would have recognised as having the potential to deliver a bum note.
But the Chelsea boss isn’t making a song and dance of it.
When he briefly turned his back on the game in added time to applaud the Stamford Bridge fans for chanting his name, he missed Olivier Giroud head Arsenal’s meaningless consolation.
Unstoppable
Chelsea’s touchline conductor won’t take his eye off the sheet music again – even though Chelsea’s charge looks unstoppable.
Goals from Marcos Alonso, Eden Hazard and Cesc Fabregas didn’t reflect the level of their superiority.
But afterwards Conte insisted: “The league is not finished. That’s a pity, but there are still 14 games to go and 42 points to play for.
“For sure, it was important to win against a rival for the title and we should celebrate tonight.
“But tomorrow we must only think about the next game against Burnley.”
Gunners boss Arsene Wenger said: “The title is Chelsea’s to lose. They look powerful and confident and they don’t h have EuropeanE footballf tb ll tot thinkthi k about.b t BellerinB ll i to tb bulletll t homeh theth opener. That means they can stay fresh and Perhaps Atkinson only saw the Spaniard prepare properly for the next game.” get a jump on the Arsenal full-back, and
Just four days after leaving Liverpool miss his elbow connect flush with with a point that had Jurgen Klopp Bellerin’s head. reaching for a stein of his favourite “Of course it was a foul,” said Wenger. pilsner, Chelsea gave Wenger an excuse “It seems referees are more severe on to take solace in a bottle of French red. tackles made on the ground than they
Wenger was forced to endure the pain are when it is an elbow to the face. of a second defeat in a week while sat among the punters in the not-so-cheap seats in the third of his four- game touchline ban.
He is being punished for pushing fourth official Michael Oliver last month – but after 12 minutes Wenger also probably wanted to get to grips with referee Martin Atkinson because Alonso’s opener should not have stood.
Diego Costa’s cunning was too much for Hector Bellerin as Pedro crossed from the right.
And when the striker’s meaty header bounced high off the crossbar, in raced Alonso to leap p above the standing g
Decision
“I don’t know whether Bellerin was fully knocked out. But he didn’t even know that Chelsea had scored, so I had to make a quick decision to bring him off.
“The goal made it more difficult for us because Chelsea are very yg good at defendingng and on t he counter-attack.” attack.”
Bellerinn wasn’t the only one left dazed. ed. The goal also knocked all the resistance out of the team- am- mates he left behind. It was only when AlexisAl iS Sanchezh di discardedd d hi his mittensitt in the 35th minute the Gunners finally took the gloves off. Sub Gabriel should have equalised, but opted for power rather than precision and Thibaut Courtois saved spectacularly. But when Hazard scored one of the goals of the season in the 53rd minute, it was game over. The Belgian shook off Laurent Koscielny twice, as well as Francis Coquelin and Shkodran Mustafi in a slaloming run from just inside his own half to deep into the Arsenal box before clipping the ball past Petr Cech. Gunners’ sub Danny Welbeck forced Courtois into another brilliant savesa before Chelsea scored aga again i n the 88th minut minute. Fabregas intercepte intercepted Cech’s woeful clearan clearance and lobbed the ball in into an empty net. The Spaniard couldn couldn’t even bring himself to celebrate. His form former team had been torture tortured enough. No wonder Arsenal’s fa fans hardly raised a cheer whe when sub Giroud headed in Nacho Monrea Monreal’s cross.