Marcos Alonso has warned that Chelsea have “seven finals” left in the Premier League title race after scoring from a 25-yard free kick to wrap up the Blues’ 3-1 win over Bournemouth on Saturday.
Alonso found the top corner with a curling shot in the 68th minute to ensure that Chelsea maintained their seven-point lead over Tottenham, who had applied pressure on the leaders with a 4-0 rout of Watford in Saturday’s early kick off.
Bournemouth are the visitors to White Hart Lane next weekend while Chelsea take on Manchester United at Old Trafford, but Alonso dismissed the suggestion that a third meeting of the season with Jose Mourinho’s men carries any greater significance in the title race.
“We have seven finals left,” the Spaniard said. “Every game is going to be massive and we are going to have to play each game as the last one because we need the points to get closer to the title.
“We knew the Tottenham score before the game so we knew we could only win. We knew it was going to be a tough game but I think the team played a good 90 minutes and we got the three points.
“I think the team does well with pressure. We know what we are playing for, the motivation is 100 percent and we played a good game.”
Chelsea showed few signs of nerves in the first half at the Vitality Stadium, with Eden Hazard rounding Artur Boruc to score his 14th goal of the season after Adam Smith had diverted a scuffed Diego Costa effort into his own net.
Joshua King’s deflected shot gave Bournemouth hope of a comeback prior to half-time, but Chelsea closed out the match comfortably after Alonso’s free kick, and afterwards Antonio Conte praised his players’ unwavering determination to become champions again.
“We have shown all season great character, great desire, great will to fight for the title,” he said. “When we started the season, nobody thought that Chelsea could fight for the title but instead we found the right motivation together.
“Now we stay at the top of the league and are trying to change the opinion of the others.”
As he did in the spring of 2015, Hazard is lighting up Chelsea’s run-in with a series of decisive goals and virtuoso performances, bolstering the case for him to regain the PFA Player of the Year award he surrendered to Riyad Mahrez last season.
“I am happy for Eden and he scored a good goal,” Conte added. “He is doing a good job, good work during the game. He is great player, a great talent. He must understand that he is a great player and to never forget this.
“I think that every coach’s real function is not only to win but to improve the players. A good coach also tries to find the right way to work with them, in tactical aspects and physical aspects, to show them the situations [in which] they can improve.
“I think a good coach, a good manager must do this, not only win [matches] or buy the best players in the world.”
Five more wins will be enough to bring the Premier League trophy back to Stamford Bridge, and Alonso says there is a unity of purpose among everyone at Chelsea to see it done.
“The group is fantastic,” he added. “We all know where we are going, we are all going in the same direction and that’s very important.
“Every game we win is a strong message for the other teams. We’ve been there almost all season, we’re showing we want to be there, we’re playing very well and fighting for it and that’s what we need keep doing.”
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