Guardian:
Chelsea win Premier League title again as Michy Batshuayi sinks West Brom
West Brom 0 - 1 Chelsea
Daniel Taylor at The Hawthorns
When the decisive moment arrived there were a few seconds when Antonio Conte gave the impression he might actually run all the away from the touchline to join in the victory scrum. Chelsea’s manager made it half a dozen yards on to the pitch before checking back but he did not have to wait too long before he could be with his players and his first season in the Premier League was assured of a happy ending.
For Chelsea, it was the moment that confirmed their fifth title in the last 12 years and the only downside of a glorious night for the new champions was the fighting that broke out in the home stands after the substitute Michy Batshuayi had delivered the telling blow. Chelsea have played a lot better at times this season but there can be no doubt they have been the best team in the country.
It has never been a bad trait for a team at the top of the league to win without being at their best and Tottenham Hotspur know now that their last game at White Hart Lane – at least as we know it – when Manchester United head south on Sunday will be for nostalgia rather than trying to keep up the chase. Football is a cruel game sometimes. “Tottenham Hotspur, we’re laughing at you,” was the new addition to the Chelsea songbook.
It finished with Conte getting the bumps in front of the Chelsea fans who had packed into the Smethwick End hoping The Hawthorns might finally bring them some joy. Two of Chelsea’s recent managers, André Villas-Boas and Roberto Di Matteo, lost their jobs after jarring defeats at this ground. That, however, felt like a long time ago as the away end went through their victory songs, David Luiz showed off his samba and the triumphant players decided it was time to start throwing John Terry in the air. Even Frank Lampard joined in the celebrations at one stage, leaving the touchline and his television role to embrace some of his old team-mates.
Ultimately, it will not matter that Chelsea put in a stodgy performance or that Pedro and Eden Hazard faded so badly they were substituted. Those were just minor details after that moment, 82 minutes in, when Chelsea pressed forward for the goal that would mean so much. César Azpilicueta provided the pass. Batshuayi prodded his shot past Ben Foster and those were the moments when all that pent-up emotion could be released. Leicester City’s time is over but the ribbons on the championship trophy will still be blue and Chelsea will look forward to being reunited with it when they play Sunderland at Stamford Bridge next weekend.
It took a while to conjure up the decisive goal but every team that finish in Chelsea’s position need a resilient streak. Chelsea came up against obdurate opponents and it was difficult to remember at times that West Brom have been in the worst form of any Premier League side since the beginning of April, taking only two points from seven games and having previously set an unwanted club record of failing to score five times in a row.
The oddity of Tony Pulis’s managerial career is that he is known for his motivational powers yet West Brom, like Stoke before them, have a habit of tailing off once they know they are safe. In total, Pulis has won only six out of 45 games after reaching 40 points. This was West Brom’s fourth 1-0 defeat in five games, although in fairness nobody could accuse them of playing without desire. Pulis’s team caused grievous damage to Tottenham’s title hopes with a draw at White Hart Lane last season and they looked determined to show they could influence this title race, too.
There were also times when Chelsea, perhaps in their desperation to make the breakthrough, looked unusually ragged at the back. Salomón Rondón and the substitute Nacer Chadli had chances to punish them in the second half and in those moments it was unusual to see Conte’s team so vulnerable to the counterattack.
For most of the night, however, Chelsea were on top without being able to find a way through a team that spent parts of the game with a defensive line of six players. Conte’s men began like a team in a hurry. Cesc Fàbregas showed again he is an elegant replacement for N’Golo Kanté. Hazard and Pedro flitted around dangerously while Victor Moses and Marcos Alonso demonstrated why they have become such important players.
At various times this season Chelsea have been depicted as a counterattacking team – defence-orientated, if you listen to José Mourinho – but they can actually adapt their game in many ways and this was one of the occasions when they tried to overwhelm their opponents. Their problem was finding the killer pass. Foster is a difficult goalkeeper to beat and, though it was quickly forgotten by the end, the shot from Hazard that went out for a throw-in midway through the second half might well have been his least distinguished moment of the season.
Perhaps Chelsea had also allowed a bit of apprehension to creep in, too. Passes were rushed, shots snatched. For all their possession, the goal was really the only moment of the night when they created a clear opportunity inside the penalty area. But then the ball was at Batshuayi’s feet, Conte’s fists were raised and it was an explosion of joy behind the goal.
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Telegraph:
West Brom 0 Chelsea 1: Michy Batshuayi gives Antonio Conte the title in debut Premier League season
There are hundreds of small steps to become Premier League champions but it can so often be the final one that is among the hardest to take, and so it proved for Chelsea who found a hero at the last in their bit-part £33 million striker Michy Batshuayi, a match-winner and now a title-clincher.
This was a long way from the best Chelsea performance of the season but they found a way and with a winner from Batshuayi, a substitute, nine minutes from time after a long, hard battle they showed that they have the capability to win on all occasions. They were made to fight every last step of the way by West Bromwich Albion, as if to make the point to Antonio Conte that he is right when he says that no game in England’s top-flight can be taken for granted.
When the goal went in the Italian leapt into the arms of his staff, and his transformation of Chelsea from the champions that melted under the pressure last season to the champions again this time has been remarkable. That they won against West Brom when it looked like the title race could stumble on to the 37th game against Watford at Stamford Bridge on Monday, was testament to the cussedness of Conte’s team.
Good footballers, and good managers, never tire of that winning feeling and there was no restraint in the celebrations in front of their travelling fans after the final whistle. The Chelsea players and staff threw Conte up into the air, and then they did the same for John Terry and all this barely 18 months since Jose Mourinho had accused much of this squad of betraying their then manager.
From tenth place they have risen again, with some useful additions but essentially a successful reboot of Mourinho’s Chelsea of 2014-2015. They have been finely machined into shape by their exacting Italian coach who can now complete the league and FA Cup double in his first season, and has carried his team along with that restlessness that never permitted his players to slack.
Conte made another brave call with 15 minutes of the match remaining and West Brom holding his team out – in this case, he substituted Eden Hazard. Chelsea’s No 10 might be the most talented attacking talent in the Premier League but he does have bad days too and this was one of them. Although substituting him is not a decision any manager takes lightly.
The original plan would surely have been to take the lead and bring on N’Gole Kante who was on the bench, still recovering from injury, and in the end did not play a part in this last step to securing his second consecutive league title with two different clubs. In those last 15 minutes, Conte instead turned to Batshuayi who has not scored a league goal since his solitary previous strike this season against Watford in August.
Since then he had managed just four, two apiece in the EFL Cup and FA Cup, before this momentous night at the Hawthorns when he got the decisive touch on a cross from Cesar Azpilicueta to put the ball past Ben Foster. If there had been one criticism of Chelsea’s summer transfer dealing then it might have been their over-valuation of Batshuayi but this was a moment when one could even make a case for that £33 million fee.
With Chelsea fans all over the ground to watch their team clinch the sixth league title in their history, a fight broke out in the Birmingham Road end of the Hawthorns with a few minutes remaining and the game was held up as what seemed like away fans came onto the pitch. Even then, Pulis’ team did their very best to come back into a game in which they had yielded nothing to the new champions.
The casual observer might have thought, by the way in which the home team performed, that there was more at stake for Pulis’ team than just their comfortable top ten finish. In fact West Brom have been in eighth place since New Year’s Eve and although they are a long way from the most daunting opponent they are among the most awkward.
By the end of the game, before Batshuayi scored, West Brom’s back line numbered six players, and even so they had some chances of their own in the second half as Chelsea became more desperate for the breakthrough. Salomon Rondon did a fine job chasing whatever West Brom’s midfield could get through to him although it was mostly a case of Chelsea trying to pick their way through or around the ten men the home team had behind the ball
Although West Brom have long been safe, this was the kind of performance that demonstrates their manager’s will better than any other. His management style, and the sort of clubs he manages, means that he has to wage a perpetual war on complacency and where better to show that spirit than in a game that means little to West Brom, but everything to their opponents?
Chelsea seemed to come out to try to kill off their opposition at the start of the second half, but this was one vampire that kept climbing back out the coffin. With 20 minutes remaining and a considerable urgency gripping the league leaders, Pulis had reverted to that back six.
Hazard was having one of those games where nothing quite went right and the defenders anticipate every one of his twists and turns and bursts of speed. One of his shots from the left side was so badly miscued that it went out for a throw-in rather than a goal-kick and he was called to the bench with 15 minutes of the game left.
There was pressure on Michael Oliver, the referee, from a home crowd who seemed to disagree with just about every foul given against their team. Over and again West Brom dug in and every minute that ticked by they warmed a little more to the task, in fact they even created some chances of their own.
Rondon showed quite a turn of pace and nimbleness of foot to get away from David Luiz and run on goal, even if he was caught eventually by Gary Cahill. Pulis had brought on Claudio Yacob, an experienced old midfield bruiser in place of young Sam Field, to stiffen an already fairly rigid midfield. There was another chance for West Brom on 72 minutes when another substitute, Nacer Chadli, got onto Rondon’s ball and struck his shot wide.
Then came the goal from the most unlikely of sources, and all the doubt that this would be Chelsea’s night lifted from the team. They saw out the game with the usual hard-headedness that we have come to expect of this side and they have more than two weeks now to prepare for that FA Cup final on May 27 while Arsenal must fight for fourth place. It seems like everything has fallen their way this season, but it has taken some character to grasp the opportunity when it has come.
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Independent:
Chelsea beat West Brom to win the Premier League title in Antonio Conte's debut season at the club
West Brom 0 Chelsea 1: Michy Batshuayi scored the goal that won Chelsea the title
Miguel Delaney
After a season that has so often seen Antonio Conte turn negatives into positives, and been a victory for pure coaching, the title itself was so fittingly won by one more moment of inspiration; one more brave decision.
Michu Batshuayi has barely got a look-in for Chelsea this season, and the manager has often expressed frustration in his development, but it was Conte’s faith in the 23-year-old that ended his side’s frustration at the Hawthorns and ensured the Belgian will be front of centre of every image of celebration.
The Italian took a gamble by bringing on Batshuayi in the 76th minute of what had been an immensely trying 0-0 draw with West Brom, and the striker then took the gamble of a run to score. His effort won the game, and won the title.
It is the sixth of Chelsea’s history, the fourth of Conte’s career, and his first in England in what was his debut season.
The wonder was whether West Brom were going to be mere witnesses to a procession, or proper participants in a battle that was going to make Chelsea have to do that bit more to earn this title.
That was because, since claiming 40 points on 25 February, their record from the next nine games read: five points, six defeats, seven games where they failed to score… but with four of those points and three of those goals coming in two games against Arsenal and Manchester United.
The big sides still get a big response out of Tony Pulis sides, regardless of what stage of the season it is.
That was signalled as early as the opening minute of the game, when Salomon Rondon finished off a sweeping attack with thrusting header. There was similar aggression and energy to every West Brom challenge, leaving many Chelsea players - and especially Eden Hazard - on their back on the rain-sodden pitch. Sam Field was soon booked for one scything tackle from behind on Pedro, that left the winger in a heap, and the young West Brom lad somewhat brazenly protesting his innocence.
Chelsea were indeed being made to work, and fight, and really eke out their chances.
The West Brom supporters did ironically celebrate when a decision went their way on 40 minutes, but they might well have been fortunate that referee Michael Oliver didn’t point to the spot when the ball appeared to strike Chris Brunt’s arm earlier in the game.
They weren’t fortunate to be level, though, given they had so limited to Chelsea to scrapping for chances and long shots.
The spectacularly-on-form Cesc Fabregas was naturally finding space where others couldn’t, and flashed one 33rd-minute effort wide. It was the closest they’d come in the first half.
Victor Moses went even closer at the start of the second half, bringing a fine low save from Ben Foster as he tried another shot from distance. It did look like it was going to take something inspired, or bit different, to break West Brom down - put David Luiz’s attempted bicycle kick from the resulting corner was probably a bit too different.
It looked like Eden Hazard had finally got behind the defence on 52 minutes, but he delayed his shot when forced wide, and West Brom just about managed to scramble the ball away.
That chance inevitably came from an inspired Fabregas floated ball, and he was the Chelsea player most probing, most likely to produce something that opened West Brom.
It said a lot for how much West Brom were frustrating Conte’s side that when Diego Costa got the ball in the box on the hour, and looked set to turn, he rather easily went down. That was how difficult Pulis’s well-drilled defence were making it.
They were not going to willingly be anyone’s patsy.
Conte realised something big needed to change, so made a big decision: he took off Chelsea’s most vibrant attacking player this season, removing Hazard for Willian, and introduced Batshuayi for Pedro.
It had a big effect, an inspired effect.
On 84 minutes, just when West Brom seemed to be getting comfortable in their ability to keep Chelsea out, Batshuayi finally stood out.
Cesar Azpilicueta got behind the backline to square, and the young Belgian got the goal that he and his club had been waiting for.
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Mail:
West Brom 0-1 Chelsea: Michy Batshuayi comes off the bench to sneak home late winner and ensure the Blues are Premier League champions
By Martin Samuel for the Daily Mail
Michy Batshuayi has not scored many goals in the league this season, but 50 per cent of the ones he has scored have won Chelsea the title.
If you’re going to go, go big — and Batshuayi went big in the 82nd minute here. Just at the point when it looked as if we would all have to reconvene at Stamford Bridge on Monday, he arrived in West Brom’s six-yard box to ensure the title race is concluded with more than a week to spare.
That is no small achievement in the season that brought Pep Guardiola to the Premier League, Jose Mourinho to Manchester United, and saw Tottenham older, more experienced and ready to improve on last season’s attempt to chase down Leicester.
That Mauricio Pochettino’s team came up short again is due, in no little part, to the traits we saw in Chelsea on Friday night. Resilience, determination, organisation and some of the finest passing and most fleet-footed forward play in the league.
Chelsea are worthy champions, Antonio Conte a worthy winner of the Premier League in his first season as coach. Impressively, he has solved Chelsea’s perennial problems: how to move on from John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic; how to rebuild team spirit after a calamitous campaign a year ago.
He has made a solid citizen of David Luiz, dealt skilfully with high-maintenance stars such as Diego Costa and Eden Hazard, turned Victor Moses into a right wing back and unleashed Cesc Fabregas just at the right time, his radar helping close out the season.
Indeed, right until the last, Conte got it right. At £33million from Marseille, Batshuayi has been one of the transfer flops of the season. Yet, with nothing working, and West Brom growing stronger — Nacer Chadli almost gave them the lead late in the game — Conte was not scared to introduce him as a late substitute, or withdraw Hazard, who had run himself into the ground, even in defensive service.
And the title was his reward. If you’re going to score your first in the league since August 20 against Watford, it might as well win the league. With the game heading for a draw, Hazard off and West Brom at last exerting pressure, there was a degree of tension as we entered the final straight. Well, as much tension as there can be when a team needs one win and still has Watford and Sunderland to play at home.
Enter Batshuayi. He took advantage of the defensive reorganisation caused by the withdrawal of Gareth McAuley, after West Brom had failed to deal with a sliced shot that went into no-man’s land. Chelsea recycled it, Cesar Azpilicueta crossed and Batshuayi slid in to poke the ball past Ben Foster.
Cue lunatic celebrations. Cue much sliding in all corners of the pitch. Batshuayi went first, again, down by the corner flag. So did Luiz into the arms of Azpilicueta. On the bench Conte leapt on to his staff with such abandon he may have suffered a cut lip.
This was Chelsea, showing the drive that has got them where they are this season. This was Conte, passion overflowing, showing how a first season in English football can be done. Batshuayi’s signing may have been a rare error, but who will remember that now?
When the final whistle blew, Conte went round his team, jumping at them in the style of one of those impassioned meetings on railway platforms. Arms and legs wrapped around, catch me. The players responded by giving him the bumps. Then John Terry.
Yet, digressing slightly, now the dust has settled, do you know for whom this game looked very bad news? Pep Guardiola. West Brom must visit Manchester City on Tuesday with Guardiola still not certain of a place in the Champions League next season, and as Tony Pulis’s players demonstrated, they take pride in their end of season cussedness.
It would have been easy for them to coast here, easy to let Chelsea take the expected three points and the title with scant resistance.
Albion have little to play for, after all. They are a very credible eighth but, in reality, top of the bottom. They defended as if their existence depen-ded on it, almost scored after 23 seconds through Salomon Rondon and looked just the sort of team that would delight in frustrating Manchester City.
The reason Chelsea have won a fifth Premier League title, was on show even in moments of greatest frustration. It was all there. The exquisite passing and vision of Fabregas; the delightful touch and poise of Hazard; fine saves when needed by Thibaut Courtois, including one in a part of the game when many contemporaries may have been taken by surprise; a great saving tackle by Luiz; the width; the counter-attacking; the speed of recovery.
All that was missing was player of the season, N’Golo Kante, still recovering from injury and on the bench, and striker Diego Costa, who was present in name only for much of the game. He was the one disappointment.
Yet he has been magnificent on other occasions, and any player can have an off night. His team-mates made up for it. Intense, eager, willing to get the job done at the first opportunity.
Chelsea’s biggest problem was accuracy. They had plenty of shots, but few that challenged Ben Foster. Most of the chances were crafted by the boot of Fabregas. Had the forwards found their range it could have been done much earlier but West Brom, whose draw at Tottenham proved so decisive last season, are nothing if not awkward.
Physical, too. James McClean was lucky his night did not end prematurely having received a yellow card for taking out Moses after 20 minutes. He did it again soon after and was fortunate Michael Oliver decided to be lenient. The home fans moaned anyway, but they didn’t have a case. The best team won, the match and — more importantly — the league.
WEST BROM (4-1-4-1): Foster 6; Dawson 6.5, McAuley 7 (Wilson 64, 6), Evans 6.5, Nyom 6, Fletcher 6.5, Brunt 7, Livermore 6, Field 6 (Yacob 51, 6), McClean 6 (Chadli 59, 5), Rondon 6.5
Subs not used: Robson-Kanu, Morrison, Wilson, Myhill, Leko
Booked: McClean, Wilson, Field
Manager: Tony Pulis 6
CHELSEA (3-4-2-1): Courtois 6.5; Azpilicueta 6.5, David Luiz 7, Cahill 6.5, Moses 6 (Zouma 86, 5), Fabregas 6.5, Matic 6.5, Alonso 6, Pedro 5 (Batshuayi, 76, 7.5), Hazard 5.5 (Willian 75, 5) Diego Costa 5
Subs not used: Begovic, Ake, Kante, Terry
Goal: Batshuayi 81
Manager: Antonio Conte 7.5
Referee: Michael Oliver
Attendance: 25,367
Player ratings by Matt Barlow
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