Chelsea March Towards The EPL Title

Some wins are bigger than others, simply because of the implications for the victors and the other teams affected by the result, and this 4-2 victory for Chelsea against Southampton was one of those that was heavy on significance for Antonio Conte’s team.

Nine days after suffering their 2-0 defeat against Manchester United at Old Trafford, which gave Tottenham renewed hope of a late surge towards the title, Chelsea bounced back with a win that now heaps huge pressure on Spurs to match them with three points at Crystal Palace on Wednesday.

But regardless of what Spurs achieve at Selhurst Park, Conte and his players will know that they passed a genuine test of nerve against Southampton.

And with a favourable run-in, Sunday’s trip to Everton looks to be the only real obstacle in Chelsea’s way in the final month of the campaign. After visiting Goodison Park, Chelsea wrap up their league campaign with three home games against Middlesbrough, Watford and Sunderland and an away trip to West Brom.

It is not exactly daunting, but it would have been had Chelsea failed to defeat Southampton. Such an outcome would have given Spurs real optimism, but this result snuffed out their flickering hopes and set Chelsea on the home straight to the title.

They may have conceded for the 11th successive league game when Oriol Romeu cancelled out Eden Hazard’s opener before Ryan Bertrand scored a second in stoppage time, but Gary Cahill’s header and Diego Costa’s first goal in six league games, quickly followed by a second, secured a comfortable win for the leaders.

Chelsea now have a seven-point lead at the top with four games to play — they are going to take some stopping now.

They may have conceded for the 11th successive league game when Oriol Romeu cancelled out Eden Hazard’s opener before Ryan Bertrand scored a second in stoppage time, but Gary Cahill’s header and Diego Costa’s first goal in six league games, quickly followed by a second, secured a comfortable win for the leaders.

Chelsea now have a seven-point lead at the top with four games to play — they are going to take some stopping now.

And when he floated a cross for Costa to head in Chelsea’s third on 53 minutes, it registered Fabregas’s 103rd Premier League assist, which places him second only to Ryan Giggs, who took more than 20 seasons to clock up 162.

Fabregas may head to new pastures in the summer, but if that is to be case, he proved he can still have an impact at the top level in this game.

Southampton may have suffered their second successive convincing defeat against a top-four club by following their 3-0 home loss against Manchester City with this result against Chelsea, but Claude Puel’s team were much more threatening at Stamford Bridge than against Pep Guardiola’s team recently.

Against City, Saints appeared as though they were already thinking of their summer holidays, but on this occasion, they gave Chelsea a scare before the league leaders pulled away with goals either side of half-time.

Southampton are safe from relegation and out of the running for European qualification, but with games still to play against Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal, they can have a big say in which of those clubs misses out on a Champions League place.

Puel’s team are industrious and imaginative, with pace going forward, and they will trouble all three of their Champions League-chasing opponents.

If they perform as they did against City, Southampton will lose each game, but as they showed in the first half against Chelsea, they have the ability to make life difficult for anybody if they are allowed the space to play their attacking football.