Chelsea edge closer to Premier League title after stalemate at Arsenal
The English Premier League crown looks to be heading south to London after four years of residing in the north-west at Manchester United and Manchester City. Pacesetters Chelsea drew 0-0 at second placed Arsenal to remain 10 points clear with five games to play.
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Chelsea took a purposeful step towards winning their first English Premier League title since 2010 with a dogged goalless draw at Arsenal.
Jose Mourinho’s pacesetters were at their miserly best ending Arsenal’s attempt to make it nine Premier League wins on the trot.
The stalemate means Arsenal drop to third behind Manchester City on goal difference but City have played a game more than the north Londoners.
Chelsea, like Arsenal, have played 33 matches and are 10 points ahead of the defending champions.
The title can be paraded at Stamford Bridge on 3 May, provided Chelsea win at Leicester City on Wednesday evening and then beat Crystal Palace next Sunday afternoon in west London.
As Sunday's game at the Emirates ended, Mourinho’s men were bombarded with chants of "Boring, boring Chelsea".
The 52-year-old Portuguese coach appeared to revel in the insults from fans who last enjoyed a championship success in 2004, the season of "The Invincibles" when Arsenal went 38 league games unbeaten.
"I think boring is 10 years without a title,” Mourinho jibed. “That's boring. If you support a club and you wait, wait, wait for so many years without a Premier League title, then that's boring.”
How the Arsenal faithful must have detested that reminder. It was the young gunslinger Mourinho who wrested the title from Arsenal in 2005 during his first incarnation at Chelsea.
The self-styled "Special One" retained the crown at the end of the 2006 season before his relationship with the Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich soured and he was dismissed.
Carlo Ancelotti stewarded the west Londoners to their only Premier League title in Mourinho's absence in 2010. Otherwise it's all been Manchester United or Manchester City.
If west London has been yearning for title glory for half a decade, the anguish is doubled to the north of the capital.
While he tries to construct a team able to win the league crown, the Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger must wait for a few more months to outwit what seems to have become a nemesis. He has failed to defeat a Mourinho team in 13 meetings.
With eight straight victories including a 4-1 annihilation of Liverpool three weeks ago, confidence was surging among Wenger's men that they could erode Chelsea's 10-point lead and pose a test for their mental strength with five games remaining.
That mission foundered on the resolve that was the Chelsea defence. César Azpilicueta, Gary Cahill, Branislav Ivanovic and skipper John Terry are the division’s second meanest defence.
That quartet celebrated together on the final whistle as if the trophy had been claimed.
And perhaps it has. “Chelsea will be champions,” conceded Wenger. “We know that. It is impossible for them to lose it now.”
The Frenchman can hope, though. Chelsea travel to a Leicester City team fighting for their Premier League survival. They will receive the leaders having climbed their way out of the drop zone over the past month with four straight wins. However, sides such as West Ham United, West Bromwich Albion, Swansea and Burnley are inferior to a Chelsea side with the title scent.
Nevertheless that midweek clash in the east Midlands of England should be intriguing. Were Chelsea to drop points, then there might be renewed vigour from the chasing pack.
Manchester City needed a last minute winner from Fernandinho to see off Aston Villa 3-2 at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday night. City had been 2-0 up before Tim Sherwood's relegation threatened outfit staged a comeback.
Manchester United are down to fourth following a comprehenisve 3-0 defeat at Everton on Sunday afternoon. Talk of a late tilt at the title appears over following the 1-0 loss at Chelsea the previous week.
The seeming certainty of a comfortable finish in the top four seems in jeopardy following those back-to-back losses. United are seven points ahead of fifth placed Liverpool who play at Hull City on 28 April.
Hull, who are a point off the drop zone, have a hellish run-in. They must face Arsenal and Manchester United before the end of the season. If they pull off some surprises in those games, they might add a few twists and turns to the finale of the Premier League season which appears to be heading Jose's way.
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