Chelsea’s title challenge under Antonio Conte feels more persuasive with every passing week. This was arguably a more impressively constructed victory than that handed to them so obligingly by Manchester United the previous week, a win chiselled out against one of the form teams in the division and a side who had not lost here since February. Southampton ended up feeling forlorn.
Given the hosts’ underlying qualities, to win this comfortably was remarkable. The London club, then under Guus Hiddink’s interim management, had been the last team to prevail at Southampton’s expense on the south coast, but that had been a success squeezed late from an even contest. This, in contrast, was a masterclass in how to exert almost complete control despite the home side hogging the ball for the majority of the play.
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