Antonio Conte can’t hear the Fat Lady singing yet – but that’s only because she is having one last gargle before taking to the stage.
Chelsea maintained their stranglehold on the title race and, in doing so, put a big blue cross through one of those games that Conte would have recognised as having the potential to deliver a bum note.
But the Chelsea boss isn’t making a song and dance out of it.
When he briefly turned his back on the game in injury-time to applaud the Stamford Bridge fans for chanting his name, he missed Olivier Giroud head Arsenal’s meaningless consolation.
Chelsea’s touchline conductor won’t take his eye off the sheet music again – even if Chelsea’s charge looks unstoppable.
Goals from Marcos Alonso, Eden Hazard and Cesc Fabregas didn’t reflect the level of their superiority.
But afterwards Conte insisted: “The league is not finished. That’s a pity, but there are still 14 games to go and 42 points to play for. For sure, it was important to win against a rival for the title and we should celebrate tonight.
“But tomorrow we must only think about the next game – against Burnley.”
Just four days after leaving Liverpool with a point that had Jurgen Klopp reaching for a stein of his favourite pilsner, Chelsea gave Arsene Wenger an excuse to take a massive swig from a bottle of French red.
Wenger was forced to endure the pain of a second defeat in a week while sat among the punters in the not-so-cheap seats as he continued his four-game touchline ban.
He is being punished for pushing fourth official Anthony Taylor last month – after 13 minutes Wenger also probably wanted to get to grips with Martin Atkinson.
Alonso’s opener should not have stood. Video Loading Video Unavailable The video will start in 8Cancel Play now Video will play in Diego Costa’s cunning was too much for Hector Bellerin as Pedro crossed from the right.
And when the striker’s meaty header bounced high off the crossbar, in raced Alonso to leap above Bellerin and bullet home the opener.
Perhaps referee Atkinson only saw the Spaniard get a jump on the Arsenal full-back, but he did miss Alonso’s elbow connect flush with Bellerin’s head.
“Of course, it was a foul,” said Wenger. “It seems referees are more severe on tackles made on the ground than they are when it is an elbow to the face.
“I don’t know whether Bellerin was fully knocked out. But he didn’t even know that Chelsea had scored, so I had to make a quick decision to bring him off.
“The goal made it more difficult for us because Chelsea are very good at defending and on the counter-attack.”
Bellerin wasn’t the only one left dazed. The goal also knocked all the resistance out of the team-mates he left behind.
With Aaron Ramsey, Santi Cazorla and Granit Xhaka all missing, the folly of allowing Jack Wilshere to depart to Bournemouth on loan came back to haunt the visitors.
It was only when Alexis Sanchez discarded his mittens in the 35th minute that the Gunners finally took the gloves off.
Substitute Gabriel should have drawn them level, but he opted for power rather than precision when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain teased over a cross and Thibaut Courtois saved spectacularly.
But when Hazard scored one of the goals of the season in the 53rd minute, it was game over.
The Belgian shook off Koscielny twice, as well as Francis Coquelin and Shkodran Mustafi in a slaloming run that took him from just inside his own half to deep into the Arsenal box.
When Cech advanced, Hazard beat him with a clipped finish.
Up in his private box, Roman Abramovich and Didier Drogba gave high-fives. Video Loading Video Unavailable The video will start in 8Cancel Play now
Video will play in Gunners sub Danny Welbeck forced Courtois into another brilliant save before Chelsea scored again in the 88th minute.
Less than 90 seconds after entering the fray, Fabregas intercepted Cech’s woeful clearance with his thigh and lobbed the ball into an empty net.
The Spaniard couldn’t even bring himself to celebrate. His former team had been tortured enough. No wonder Arsenal’s travelling fans hardly raised a cheer when sub Giroud headed home Nacho Monreal’s cross at the death.
The Gooners had nothing to sing about – unlike the boys from the Bridge.
No comments:
Post a Comment