Chelsea’s Victory over Middlesbrough Has the Sniff of Champions About It

The Antonio Conte express train continues to roll on, and right now, it’s the No. 1 attraction in the Premier League.

Chelsea are the Premier League’s outright leaders after recording a sixth win in a row on Sunday—a 1-0 victory against Middlesbrough. With Liverpool dropping points at Southampton 24 hours earlier, it gave Conte’s men the chance to steal a march on them. It was one they didn’t refuse.

Indeed, mention of Liverpool’s slip up away to Southampton is rather apt given that Chelsea proved particularly ruthless in dispatching the Saints a few weeks back.

Like-for-like comparisons in that sense can be pointless—they’re different teams playing under different circumstances—but given how Chelsea were able to safely negotiate Middlesbrough suggests we’re seeing performances from this side that other title challengers aren’t producing. Not yet at least.

Very important away win! Once Again Clean Sheet ! That’s how you win titles @ChelseaFC 💪⚽️ #MIDCHE #CFC

— Michael Ballack (@Ballack) November 20, 2016

Not only have Chelsea picked up three points on the road against Southampton, they faced the same Boro side that had earned draws away to Arsenal and Manchester City in the past month. Aitor Karanka’s side had pulled off those results with no shortage of defensive and tactical acumen. As is the manager’s right to do, he set his team up to frustrate and deny opportunities.

At the Emirates Stadium, Boro very nearly came away with a shock victory, and having denied City in their own half, they caused problems in attack against Pep Guardiola’s side, too.

It was expected that we would see the same against Chelsea at the Riverside. Gaps were found in the 3-4-3, and had Gaston Ramirez been more clinical in the final third, the home side may well have got more than they bargained for. Instead, it was just a shot from Alvaro Negredo that Thibaut Courtois had to save late on—his only such stop of the game.

As threatening as Boro were at times, they were frigid at the back. Chelsea’s final ball wasn’t executed effectively enough to really punish them, so coupled with a solid display from the centre-back pairing of Calum Chambers and Ben Gibson, it could have become a frustrating afternoon.

That it didn’t prove to be tells us everything about where Chelsea find themselves at this moment. There are still 26 games remaining in the campaign, but that fact shouldn’t deny that these players are beginning to think of themselves as …

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