Kante on top form as Chelsea extend their lead at the top
CHELSEA took another ruthless step towards the title and killed off any lingering hopes Arsenal had left.
They moved 12 points clear of the Gunners after yesterday’s early kickoff and could then sit back and wait to see what the rest of the chasing pack did over the weekend.
Goals from Marcos Alonso, Eden Hazard and Cesc Fabregas illuminated a performance of pure professional power from Antonio Conte’s team.
Arsene Wenger, banished to the stand, saw Olivier Giroud pull one back in injury time, but it was not so much as consolation as an irrelevance.
Despite the emphatic one-sided victory, Conte is still insisting that the trophy is not yet in the Stamford Bridge boardroom.
“The League is not finished and we must work very hard if we want to realise a dream,” he said.
“When I was a player I won and lost a title when I was eight points ahead, so you must be careful.
“There are 14 games and 42 points to play for. But it was important to win against a title rival. When in this situation you must exploit it.
“We celebrate this win, but from now we must think about the next game against Burnley.”
Wenger was less wary about proclaiming Chelsea as likely Champions.
“It’s theirs to lose,” he said. “They look in full confidence, powerful, strong and they don’t concede goals.
“They’re in the best position because they don’t play in Europe. They can wait and prepare properly for the next game every week.”
When Arsenal beat Chelsea at the Emirates in September, they went three points ahead of their rivals. To trail by a dozen 18 games later is an astonishing swing.
That was the night Conte decided to switch to three at the back and his team has lost just once since.
The Italian said: “After the two defeats against Liverpool and Arsenal I said we were not a team but 11 players.
“I told them we must show on the pitch that we are a team. We learned to work hard, to fight together and we are now different from the last game against Arsenal.”
It was yet another Stamford Bridge capitulation from the Gunners. They’ve now lost their last five games here, conceding 15 goals and scoring just two.
Chelsea went in front in the 13th minute when Victor Moses found Pedro down the right and his cross was headed against the bar by Diego Costa. Alonso was the first to react, forcing the rebound past Petr Cech ahead of Hector Bellerin, who sustained a head injury as he collided with Alonso.
Wenger complained that it was a foul and suggested that referees are softer on aerial challenges than those on the ground.
“One of the peculiarities of the game today is that referees are more severe with tackles on the ground and let much more go with elbows in the face,” he said.
“It’s more dangerous to hit the head than the legs. I took a quick decision to take Bellerin off. He didn’t know what the score was.”
Chelsea’s complete dominance was interrupted in the 38th minute when Thibault Courtois produced a terrific save to tip Gabriel’s header for a corner. It was an isolated moment because up to that point Arsenal had barely touched the ball in the Chelsea box.
Mesut Ozil tested the Belgian keeper again in first half stoppage time but again, Courtois saved well.
But it didn’t take long after the re-start for Chelsea to quell the mini-rebellion, and Hazard’s 53rd minute strike will go down as one of the great solo goals of the season.
He picked up a Costa headed lay-off inside his own half, held off the challenge of the much stronger Francis Coquelin and drove into the box past Koscielny and Mustafi before beating Cech with his shot.
Gabriel may have got away with an arm in Hazard’s face, but ref Martin Atkinson produced neither yellow nor red.
Substitute Danny Welbeck brought another fine save out of Courtois with a header, but it was Chelsea’s sub Fabregas who put the icing on the cake just two minutes after coming on when he lobbed a shocking clearance by Cech back into an empty net.
Giroud got his goal in stoppage time, heading in Nacho Monreal’s cross at the near post, but it barely registered with either set of fans.
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