West Brom 0-1 Chelsea: Michy Batshuayi comes off the bench to sneak home late winner and ensure the Blues are Premier League champions
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.
Late substitute Michy Batshuayi tucks the ball past Ben Foster to help Chelsea
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.
How Chelsea built up their attack leading to the vital, title-winning goal of Michy Batshuayi. FOR MORE STATS FROM MATCH ZONE CLICK HERE
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 £30m 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.