Premier League: Is Chelsea Champions Elect?

The English #Premier League took a different twist on matchday 24 after leaders Chelsea humiliated Arsenal at Stamford Bridge in a 3-1 score line thanks to goals from Marcos Alonso, Eden Hazard and Cesc Fabregas with Olivier Giroud bagging a consolation later in the game.

This was a game of much importance to Arsenal and a win would have undoubtedly cut the lead to six points and could have given Arsene Wenger and his charges the much needed boost for the rest of the month of February as matches in the Champions League are fast approaching.

With Chelsea’s dominance and no European matches on the cards, is Conte’s men Champions elect?

When Antonio Conte brought in his favored 3-4-3 formation in September after being whitewashed against Arsenal at the Emirates stadium, many people doubted if he can survive with this formation in the Premier League. Fast forward four months later and Conte leads the Premier League with a huge margin of nine points with the second placed team not the traditional Arsenal, Manchester United or Manchester City but Tottenham Hotspur -  a team that finished third in the 2015/16 Premier League season.

Chelsea played two matches in just five days against Liverpool and Arsenal and was able to come out with four points out of six whiles’ title chasers Liverpool and Arsenal lost five and six points respectively. This was a week where football fans thought Chelsea would have slipped up for other teams to close the gap so that the league would have been more competitive heading into the latter part of the Premier League soon but none of them came to fruition.

Premier League: Is Chelsea’s title to lose after Liverpool’s inconsistency and Arsenal, Manchester United and Manchester City’s European ambitions

Chelsea has been the Leicester City of last season because of non-participation in any European competition. Whiles Arsenal has an eye on Bayern Munich’s performance in the German Bundesliga and Pep Guardiola travels to watch Monaco play Paris Saint Germain at Parc de Princes whiles Mourinho fights for consistency in the Premier League with a quest to winning his second UEFA Cup with a game against Saint Etienne in mind, Conte has nothing to aim for and waits for the FA Cup to resume.

Luck has been on Chelsea’s side and players such as Eden Hazard and N’Golo Kante has carried the team on their shoulders. With the psychological turmoil of being eliminated from European competitions looming for competing teams and Liverpool’s lack of consistency, Chelsea are champions-elect and it would only take a miracle for Conte and his men to lose their grip in the chase for the title.