Countdown to the title as Chelsea canter home

ANOTHER one ticked off and another step closer. Just five more wins will do the trick, 15 more points to wrap up the title.

Spurs are doing their bit to keep it interesting. 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 the winter.

It has looked easy because it has been, and rarely has that been better illustrated than the moment in the first half when David Luiz decided to change his hairstyle.

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 tenth 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 magnificent free-kick. Quality on tap. It really is a race for second.

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte was pleased to win after Spurs had triumphed earlier in the day.

‘It wasn’t easy to play this game after the win of Tottenham, but our reaction, our answer was very good,’ said Conte. ‘We started the game very well, with good concentration and focus. That pressure, it’s normal.

‘It’s normal that when you play after your opponent that you will see your opponent very close.

‘You can feel a bit of the pressure, but it’s normal.’

The luxuries of their calendar cannot be underplayed in all this, of course. The Chelsea bean counters won’t necessarily see beauty in a year without Champions League football, but 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.

The first 45 minutes of this one were 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.

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. 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 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 midfield. The rest was done by Hazard, first in terms of his control and then with rounding Boruc before tapping in his 14th league goal of the season — his best figure for a campaign.

At that stage, it all seemed too easy. Chelsea were creating waves of attacks, playing patterns.

But Bournemouth sounded 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.

Then came their breakthrough and a wonderful finish by King, his shot deflecting off Luiz’s thigh before hitting the top corner.

But Chelsea wrapped it up on 68 minutes with a superb 25-yard free-kick from Alonso. A moment and goal of sheer perfection.