Match report
Chelsea are one win away from being crowned Premier League champions thanks to goals from Diego Costa, Marcos Alonso and Nemanja Matic. Victory was never in doubt. Chelsea can wrap it up at West Brom on Friday. As for Middlesbrough, this defeat confirms their meek relegation to the Championship. They haven’t been good enough and all life was sucked out of them by Aitor Karanka. Perhaps they could have pulled it off by sacking him earlier. As it was, the job was too much for Steve Agnew. Thanks for reading and emailing. Night.
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Full-time: Chelsea 3-0 Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough have been relegated to the Championship.
90 min: There will be three added minutes.
89 min: Bamford fouls Alonso on the left. Yellow card.
87 min: Middlesbrough have really gone down fighting.
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84 min: John Terry replaces David Luiz. Gary Cahill gives him the armband. Terry’s shaking his head. Cahill doesn’t know he’s already had an armband surgically inserted on to his left bicep.
83 min: Relegation specialist Rudy Gestede replaces Alvaro Negredo.
82 min: Feast your eyes on these bangers.
81 min: Nathaniel Chalobah replaces Pedro.
79 min: Moses wallops a shot towards the right corner. Guzan saves with his right leg, proving that it is of some use.
77 min: Costa knocks a pass through to Pedro, who fires over. He should have aimed for Guzan’s legs.
75 min: The Middlesbrough fans are still singing.
71 min: Looking at that Matic goal, it really does seem that Guzan could do with keeping his legs shut more often. Ooo-er. Willian replaces Hazard.
70 min: Costa and Guzan are both down after a collision.
69 min: MIDDLESBROUGH HAVE A SHOT ON TARGET. Leadbitter’s effort is saved by Courtois, though.
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67 min: Middlesbrough’s fans look glum. This has been a wasted journey down to London.
GOAL! Chelsea 3-0 Middlesbrough (Matic, 65 min)
Cesc Fabregas creates another goal. Hazard skips inside from the right, seemingly going nowhere before slipping a pass into the area to David Luiz, who moves it to the right for Fabregas. The Spaniard instantly prods a cross into the area with the outside of his right boot and Matic is more alert than any Middlesbrough defender, chesting the ball past Friend before firing - again - through Guzan’s legs. It’s Matic’s first ever goal at Stamford Bridge. On the touchline, Conte goes wild.
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64 min: “I can only assume Fabio has a poster of Djimi Traore on his wall which he prays to every night before bed,” says Matt Loten.
62 min: Middlesbrough have accepted their fate.
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60 min: Fabio’s booked after illegally ending a mesmeric Hazard surge.
58 min: Continuing along that theme, Fabio started a Champions League final for Manchester United six years ago. State of him now.
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57 min: Patrick Bamford, a former Chelsea youngster, replaces Adama Traore. What on earth has happened to Bamford? He showed such promise a couple of years ago.
56 min: Cahill heads wide from Fabregas’s corner. Grant Leadbitter replaces Adam Forshaw.
55 min: Fabregas tees himself up for a volley from 25 yards. It’s heading wide, but the ball hits Chambers and trickles towards the right post. Guzan’s helpless, but the ball drifts just wide.
54 min: A loose ball breaks to Cahill, who absolutely larrumps one goalwards from 30 yards! It’s fiercely struck and rising viciously, but Guzan manages to push it away. What an effort from the Chelsea centre-back!
52 min: Pedro skitters inside from the left and manages to work a pass to the unmarked Alonso on the left. He’s completely free, but he scuffs his effort across goal and Costa can’t reach it at the far post.
51 min: Fabregas is having the time of his life tonight. He couldn’t have picked more obliging opponents.
48 min: Remember when Alvaro Negredo was good? What a wild ride those six months were.
46 min: Chelsea get the second half underway. Marcos Alonso has been credited with the second goal. Pedro’s almost credited with a third, but his shot from Hazard’s pass clips the top of the bar.
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Half-time: Chelsea 2-0 Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough require just the three goals to stave off relegation.
45 min: There will be one added minute.
43 min: MIDDLESBROUGH ENTER CHELSEA’S HALF.
42 min: From the resulting corner, David Luiz heads well wide.
41 min: A free-kick to Chelsea, 25 yards out. Fabregas is a contender to hit it. Alonso does hit it. His curling effort’s deflected just over.
39 min: Should Middlesbrough be this bad? This feels like a complete waste of a season. I suppose that they don’t have much quality, but it does feel as though they’ve basically accepted relegation since the turn of the year. Are they this much worse than Burnley?
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37 min: This is going to get embarrassing. Fabregas picks out Moses’s run from deep and finds him with a raking pass. Moses chests the ball down and tries to slide it under Guzan, who manages not to chuck this one in. Instead he saves with his feet and Chelsea have a corner. “The wind literally seems to have gone out of Middlesbrough’s will to live,” says Ian Copestake.
GOAL! Chelsea 2-0 Middlesbrough (Alonso, 34 min)
This goal has been coming since the second minute. Azpilicueta lofts another one over the wretched Fabio - amazingly it’s not Fabregas who’s come up with the assist - and from a tight angle the stretching Alonso somehow squeezes a left-footed shot off Guzan and into the net. That might be an own-goal. One for the panel to examine. Whatever they decide, one thing’s certain: Middlesbrough are going down.
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33 min: Hazard and Moses combine brilliantly on the right, the former’s splendid flick releasing the latter, but the final cross across the face of goal is struck with too much pace and Middlesbrough get away with another one.
32 min: You could say that is a form of revenge for Chelsea tonight.
Chelsea are relegated to Division Two courtesy of a playoff defeat to Middlesbrough in 1988... pic.twitter.com/8DhHIzJhaT
— 1980s Football (@FootballInT80s) May 8, 2017
31 min: Chelsea are so comfortable. It doesn’t look it will take too long for them to find a second.
29 min: A lull. “Does this mean it’s snookers required now for Spurs?” says Edan Tal. “There is something of the Mark Selby relentlessness about Chelsea.”
27 min: Chelsea’s supporters are having great fun at the expense of Tottenham now. It’s what football’s about. The taunts momentarily die down, however, when De Roon finds a yard of space in the Chelsea area. His shot’s blocked.
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25 min: Cesc Fabregas was on the bench at the start of the season. Just look at him now!
GOAL! Chelsea 1-0 Middlesbrough (Costa, 23 min)
The diagonal ball from right to left catches Middlesbrough out again and this time they pay for it. Cesc Fabregas is granted too far much space to chip a pass into the area, looking for Costa, and Fabio can’t stop it from reaching the striker. Costa does well to re-adjust after a small touch from Fabio slightly changes the flight of the ball. Once he’s got the ball under control, he calmly slots it through Guzan’s legs. It’s been coming. It’s arrived. As it stands, Middlesbrough are going down.
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20 min: Hazard escapes down the left again - Traore and Fabio are having a collective nightmare - and teases a low ball past Guzan and into the six-yard box. Costa throws himself at it, but George Friend exerts just enough pressure to ensure he the striker can’t reach the ball. Costa wants a penalty, of course, but it was excellent defending from Friend.
19 min: Carlo Ancelotti and Andriy Shevchenko are sitting next to each other in the stands. They’re probably talking about Jerzy Dudek.
17 min: Hazard strolls clear on the left. Middlesbrough decide not to engage with him. No point, you see. Hazard’s given all the time in the world to get his head up and roll a pass back to Fabregas, who lollops on to the ball before sidefooting disappointingly wide. He should have scored.
15 min: Once David Luiz is done examining those angles, he wallops his effort harmlessly over.
14 min: Fabio goes to ground in a bid to halt Costa, but he brings the Brazilian down. Chelsea have a free-kick around 30 yards from goal. David Luiz is examining the angles.
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12 min: Azpilicueta moves forward and crosses towards Costa. He’s got no Middlesbrough defender near him, but the cross is delivered with a touch too much oomph.
11 min: One flaw in Middlesbrough’s plan, by the way, is that they don’t seem to have told anyone to mark Fabregas. That’s proving problematic at the moment.
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10 min: Middlesbrough are in a spoiling mood. They’re sitting deep and trying to play on the break, as is their wont. They do defend well, it must be said. Whether that’s going to be enough tonight is up for debate.
8 min: Chelsea have started like they mean it. But now Forshaw wins a corner for Middlesbrough on the right. Downing trots across to take it, but he can’t beat the first man with his delivery.
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7 min: Alonso peels behind Traore again, bringing down a high ball before walloping it across the face of goal. No one’s there to turn it in. Moses picks up possession on the right and crosses again, but Middlesbrough shovel the ball clear.
4 min: “We’re top of the league,” the Chelsea fans chant. They’ve been here since early November.
3 min: Chelsea have started like a team determined to get this done as quickly as possible. Costa hares down the left and turns inside of Chambers, who hauls him back. Fabregas flings in the free-kick, but David Luiz can’t make contact with it.
2 min: Marcus Alonso hits the bar! Fabregas finds him with a diagonal pass from left to right. Alonso’s got space in the Middlesbrough area. He shoots low and hard, but Brad Guzan, who once conceded eight with Aston Villa here, turns the ball on to the bar and away to safety! What an escape for the visitors.
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And we’re off! Middlesbrough, in red shirts and white shorts, get us underway. They’re kicking from right to left in the first half. Chelsea, Chelsea is their name, are in blue. It’s not long before David Luiz is skilling his way out of trouble on the edge of the area. “Can we talk about Gary Cahill,” requests Hugh Molloy. “He’s going to win the PL for the 2nd time with Chelsea, as well as having a CL under his belt, and still only 31. Not just a stopper, his goals show he can play, clearly a leader - captain tonight. I’d have him in my team every week compared to Stones. “
Here come the teams! It’s time for the Liquidator and almost time for the football!
Proof of N’Golo Kante’s mortality arrives via a thigh injury that keeps him out for Chelsea. Cesc Fabregas and Nemanja Matic are the central midfield duo.
For Middlesbrough, Steve Agnew gives a start to Adama Traore. Can the unpredictable young winger provide the strugglers with the required spark?
Team news
Chelsea: Courtois; Azpilicueta, David Luiz, Cahill; Moses, Fabregas, Matic, Alonso; Pedro, Diego Costa, Hazard. Subs: Begovic, Terry, Zouma, Ake, Chalobah, Loftus-Cheek, Willian.
Middlesbrough: Guzan; Fabio, Chambers, Gibson, Friend; De Roon, Clayton, Forshaw; Traore, Negredo, Downing. Subs: Konstantopoulos, Barragan, Bernardo, Leadbitter, Guedioura, Gestede, Bamford.
Referee: Craig Pawson.
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Preamble
Well that wasn’t much of a title race, was it? Chelsea were under pressure for all of two seconds - or perhaps three - but all semblance of dramatic tension vanished into the East London air when Tottenham finally ran out of steam and into a brick wall on Friday night, going down 1-0 to West Ham. A win would have taken Spurs to within a point of the leaders, leaving Chelsea to stew all weekend about potentially blowing the title, but it turns out that Manuel Lanzini had other ideas. West Ham have done their chums from the opposite end of the District Line a huge favour and if Antonio Conte’s side can take advantage at Stamford Bridge this evening, they’ll be one more win away from wrapping up what, barring a few wobbly moments here and there, has felt inevitable for quite some time.
It would be a surprise to see Chelsea falter now. Perhaps the mood would have been different if Tottenham had won at the London Stadium, but they didn’t and Chelsea have breathing space. Beat Middlesbrough, as they surely will, and the gap will be too wide. Seven points clear, Chelsea would only need to win at West Brom on Friday night to get the party started. Failing that, they can get the job done against Watford at home on Monday. Failing that, Sunderland visit Stamford Bridge on the final day of the season. Let’s face it, it’s time to get the blue and white ribbons on the trophy.
But is there to be one more twist? Middlesbrough would certainly like to think so given that they’ll be relegated if they lose here. It’s still all to play for as far as they’re concerned, even though they’ve seven points off 17-th placed Swansea with three games to go. There’s still hope for Steve Agnew’s side after last week’s draw with Manchester City. Not much, mind you. The division’s lowest scorers - a paltry 26 goals in 35 matches - have won one league match in 2017, against condemned Sunderland the other week, and their slight improvement since Agnew replaced Aitor Karanka has surely come too late to save them. Like Chelsea winning the league, Middlesbrough’s relegation has been in the offing for a while. They aren’t a disastrous team - they aren’t Sunderland - but they lack quality. Chelsea, so driven and focused under Conte, aren’t likely to show them any mercy whatsoever.
Kick-off: 8pm BST.
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