Chelsea 4 Southampton 2
Normal service has been resumed. Chelsea checked the recent hint of a stagger and rediscovered the relentless, ruthless style which will surely yield them the Premier League title.
Victory over an awkward Southampton side re-established a seven-point advantage at the top and steeled the leaders for the run-in. The pressure has been transferred to those closest in the pursuit. Over to you, Tottenham Hotspur.
Antonio Conte wore a scowl for much of this match, pounding his technical area as ever and kicking everything from water bottles to kit bags in agitation whenever his players' concentration lapsed, or at least until Diego Costa's second half double had him skipping in delight on the touchline. Four wins from their final five fixtures will be enough to secure the title.
It is hard to see them dropping another point at home, leaving the trips to Everton on Sunday and West Bromwich Albion on May 12th as their most daunting hurdles.
Yet that is all supposing Spurs are faultless in the month ahead, and that ambition will be tested severely by Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Wednesday, a game which will draw the attention of Chelsea’s players. Regardless, Conte’s team do not appear in any mood to let the title slip away. Results as striking as this send out a message that must sap the hope from the rest.
This had always seemed like an opportunity the leaders would not let slip. Chelsea have grown used to kicking off after Tottenham of late, the schedule generating its own pressure given the relentless nature of Spurs' recent league form. Chelsea's uncharacteristically sloppy display at Manchester United in their previous league match had felt all the more damaging in the context of the drubbing Mauricio Pochettino's side had handed Bournemouth in that weekend's opening fixture more than 24 hours earlier.
Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final success may have lanced some tension, but Conte had spent almost three days drumming into his players the importance of beating Southampton and re-establishing that lead at the top. They could steal a march on their closest rivals here.
Not that this was to be straightforward. For all that Chelsea’s initial response had threatened to be emphatic, there was a legginess to the hosts at times which was exposed by a team who had enjoyed a free weekend.
Sofiane Boufal and Dusan Tadic were slippery on the visitors' flanks, ever eager to counter-attack, with James Ward-Prowse's set-piece delivery unnerving a side who have now gone 11 Premier League games without a clean sheet. Chelsea may boast a considerable attacking threat, particularly with Eden Hazard in this form, but the defensive solidity of the late autumn has been eroded.
It was a former Chelsea player, Oriol Romeu, who pierced them midway through the first period, cancelling out Hazard’s wonderfully taken opener, as the home side strove in vain to repel Ward-Prowse’s corner.
Nemanja Matic's inadvertent flick had set the defenders on their heels, with Manolo Gabbiadini given time to collect and turn inside before poking the loose ball back across goal. Thibaut Courtois' touch presented it to Romeu, who simply could not miss.
For a while that deflated the home players, whose energy appeared sapped, before's Conte's constant haranguing from the sidelines and a barnstorming run from N'Golo Kanté down the right snapped them out of their slumber. Where Hazard had thrust them ahead early on, Cesc Fàbregas' slide-rule pass sending Diego Costa into the penalty area where he was able to wait for support before laying off for the Belgian to finish, it was their returning captain who responded before the break.
Southampton’s defensive shape had been pulled apart in first half stoppage time by balls from either flank, with Cahill easing unnoticed away from Cédric Soares to meet Marcos Alonso’s looped header with a thunderous header.
The centre-half had spent two nights in hospital last week having succumbed to a severe bout of gastroenteritis, and had missed the match at Wembley. Indeed, he had risked returning to casualty by taking the ball off Costa’s boot as the striker attempted an overhead kick, but the centre-half’s header was true and flew beyond Fraser Forster.
It was the kind of goal to set the tone for an entire team, the timely type John Terry might once have scored, and it ensured Chelsea sprinted into the second period with the urgency to ease clear.
Certainly, with Fàbregas dictating the rhythm of their play with his distribution from the centre, they were more imposing thereafter. Hazard's short corner eight minutes after the interval was collected by the Spaniard with time to deliver, and his arced centre was duly nodded in by Costa, holding off Ryan Bertrand in the centre.
It was the striker’s first goal after five fruitless league games, his longest barren run since arriving in England in 2014. He had reason to thank Fàbregas for the 103rd assist of his Premier League career, but all of Chelsea’s key performers were now rising to the occasion.
Hazard, like Fàbregas, was outstanding though the return to form of Costa could prove the key to crossing the line. The final whistle was approaching when he exchanged passes first with Hazard and then with the substitute Pedro before ramming in the fourth. For the visitors Bertrand’s late header, flicked into the corner, was a mere consolation.
For Chelsea, real reward edges ever closer.
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