This was the kind of result to drain any lingering optimism from the chasing pack. A victory to drum in the reality that, for all Antonio Conte’s protestations to the contrary, Chelsea’s pursuit of the title has taken on the feel of a procession. They weathered some turbulence at times here, their backline heaving to stay intact, but were pierced so deep into stoppage time that the concession hardly even registered with a dwindling home support. The lead over second place gapes at 10 points again. There is no stopping this side and no hope at all for those who still dare to count themselves contenders.
Everything about them is relentless at present and that alone is enough to deflate most opponents. Chelsea have dropped 15 points all season and, such is their dominance, it would take a cataclysmic collapse, probably combined with the untimely loss of a number of key players to injury, to hand either Manchester City or Tottenham Hotspur even a scent in the chase.
The defeats to Liverpool and Arsenal in September prompted the manager to change his tactical approach but, so seamlessly has this group adjusted, they already feel like echoes of last season’s traumas.
The disgust on Thibaut Courtois’s face at Manuel Lanzini’s late goal, frustration mirrored in the dugout, suggested otherwise. “It’s a pity to give away the clean sheet at the end of the game for the second time, after the Arsenal game [when Olivier Giroud scored in stoppage time],” said Conte, the perfectionist in him exposed. “We must work a bit on this aspect.”
Chelsea have not kept a clean sheet in the league since January, but even that is not undermining their progress. They have claimed 11 points from those five unbeaten games since Hull City were shut out on 22 January. Everything about their lineup is functioning slickly.
Witness the pace of that counterattack, eight seconds from N’Golo Kanté’s interception deep inside Chelsea territory to Eden Hazard converting into an empty net, midway through the first period that brought West Ham’s early impetus to a juddering halt.
There was blistering pace from both flanks, with Diego Costa’s brawn rewarded with an 18th goal of the season in all competitions. Kanté has merely transposed all the dynamism from his Leicester City displays to those in the blue of his new club. The France international’s teams have claimed a staggering 143 points from the 63 league games when he has featured since arriving, unheralded, in England in the summer of 2015.
Even Conte is starting to acknowledge the midfielder as a phenomenon. “I know he made 50 passes today, and he made five mistakes, so he has to improve,” he said to a dumbfounded audience before realising his little show of humour had soared over his audience’s heads. “No, no, I am joking.
“Look, I have to find one situation to tell him to improve. He’s playing really well. He has great stamina, great quality and we are working to improve that quality.”
There was a period here when Chelsea looked as if they might, possibly, be overrun in central midfield, but that only extended until Kanté shrugged himself awake and found his rhythm. Thereafter, the hosts were outnumbered, ground down and eclipsed.
To pick out only those names is unfair given how well every member of this collective is prospering while Conte, all comic agitation on the sidelines, barks his instructions from the technical area. He took particular satisfaction from this latest victory, thrilling at his team’s dogged refusal to crack while West Ham threw everything at them and lavishing praise on the rugged displays offered up by his three centre-halves. His constant references to this being a tough game stemmed from that frantic opening half‑hour when West Ham, convinced they could prosper by targeting Andy Carroll’s aerial dominance over Victor Moses and César Azpilicueta on Chelsea’s right, flung over crosses relentlessly.
This was apparently the achilles heel, the zone where the visitors were most vulnerable. There were 13 centres in that opening 35 minutes. Yet none reaped reward.
Rather, it was Carroll who ended bloodied, the bridge of his nose having connected with the back of Moses’s head as he stretched to reach Sofiane Feghouli’s cross in the sixth minute. Thereafter, the diagonals were repelled, sometimes desperately, as Azpilicueta, David Luiz and Gary Cahill stood admirably firm. That backline epitomises the conviction within this team at present, a trio who had their doubters but have thrived regardless.
Inevitably, as West Ham’s frustration mounted, they started fizzing their crosses lower or attempting to weave passage through the cluttered heart of the visitors’ defence. They merely played into Chelsea’s hands, as so many opponents have already this term. Retreat two years and José Mourinho’s side had triumphed at West Ham en route to claiming the title. Conte’s current crop boast the same unstoppable feel.
