The final steps to the Premier League title, if indeed that is where Chelsea are heading, are proving to be hard work for Antonio Contewho watched his team take the lead, lose it, regain it and even launched a kick at the medical bag by his managerial bench before victory was at last assured.
The medical bag survived intact, and so too did Chelsea’s grip on this game which leaves them requiring a maximum of four wins from their final five games to seal the title in Conte’s first season. There will be fewer points needed if Tottenham Hotspur fail to beat Crystal Palace in the second act of the midweek title race installment on Wednesday but gradually the last bumps in the road are being negotiated.
In the end, the scoreline left no margin for doubt but Claude Puel’s team were arguably the better side in the first half until Chelsea took control after the break with two goals from Diego Costa, his first in seven games for the club. He was one of the outstanding performers and so too was Cesc Fabregas, deployed in preference to Pedro and Willian and the architect of the best of Chelsea’s attacking play.
There was enough security before Costa added the fourth for Conte to send on John Terry with four minutes left, which delighted the home crowd and must have offered a crumb of comfort to the man himself. He had not played a minute in the league since Nov 5 and he will be pleased that the second goal conceded by Chelsea, in the third minute of time added on, a towering Ryan Bertrand header, was nothing to do with him.
At this stage of the season, and at this stage of the title race, what Chelsea really needed was a mid-table opponent with their summer holidays at the back of their mind and the long wind-down to mid-May already beginning. What they got was a mid-table opponent who had spied an opportunity to make life difficult for the title-chasers who were going through a wobble.
Conte’s team went in at half-time having snatched the lead in the only minute that referee Lee Mason added on for injury-time and while Gary Cahill’s header was perfectly executed it gave Chelsea an advantage that had been far from a certainty.
Southampton conceded within the first five minutes, and before they had really woken up judging by the time Diego Costa was allowed to delay his cut-back in the area by Maya Yoshida. The Chelsea striker, chasing Cesc Fabregas’ ball, was permitted to wait unchallenged for Hazard to dash into position before delivering the pass that the Belgian pinged into the far corner of Fraser Forster’s goal.
That was early days indeed, with Southampton yet to adjust to the formation that Conte had picked of Fabregas and Hazard just behind Costa, but once they did the away team found their stride with purpose. Steven Davis and Oriol Romeu were exceptional in midfield, and there was one player who stood out from the rest on the basis of his sheer talent.
Sofiane Boufal is Southampton’s record transfer, and like Hazard, he arrived in English football from Lille although he has not yet converted that considerable talent to become a regular matchwinner. That said, some of his touches were electrifying and Southampton’s confidence on the ball meant that for the ten minutes following Chelsea’s opener they had more than 61 per cent of the possession.
There was a let-off on 18 minutes when James Ward-Prowse’s mistake let in the Costa-Frabregas-Hazard triumvirate and the latter miscued his shot badly. The equaliser came from a Southamtpon corner that was allowed to travel right through the area and if you were looking for a culprit it was most likely Marcos Alonso who failed to get a head on it, and then failed to mark Romeu.
At the back post Manolo Gabbiadini had a shot saved by Thibaut Courtois and it fell nicely for Romeu, one of the two Chelsea old boys in red stripes, to tap the ball in. Southampton deserved their equaliser, although Conte’s team regrouped and came back hard for the final ten minutes of the half.
They finally got their breakthrough in injury-time when another cross thrown into the box was headed back down by Alonso. Costa launched himself at the overhead kick but he was a fraction too late, behind the man prepared to out his head in where it hurts – Cahill, who headed the ball down past Forster.
Costa had scored a third within nine minutes from a corner that should have been much better defended. Fabregas had opted to play it short to Hazard who, with few options available made a driving run towards the byline and cut the ball back to his team-mate. The trap had been sprung and from the right channel Fabregas could see the whole of the Southampton area and assess his options.
He picked out Costa at the backpost who went in over the top of Bertrand, another Chelsea old boy, and headed one in from close range. Fabregas came off with 14 minutes left to a standing ovation, the legs tiring and a booking hanging over his ever more exhausted tackling but he had done his job.
As for Southampton, the gap was too much to close especially a Chelsea back five and all but Costa between ball and the home goal for much of the second half. Boufal had tired by the hour and was replaced while Puel looked for new ways to try to get around this Conte defence.
Costa’s second was the best of the lot, coming from a double exchange with first Hazard and then Pedro before he drilled in his 51st career goal for the club. Bertrand was the second former Chelsea man to score on the night with a header from Cedric Soares’ cross that was a hard one for the home team’s defence to explain, although the job was done by then.
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