Do you agree with Gary Neville, have Chelsea overcome their final hurdle with victory at Everton?
SkySports Pundit and Premier League title winner no less than eight times himself, Gary Neville believes that Chelsea overcame their fin...
https://www.chelseadaft.org/2017/05/do-you-agree-with-gary-neville-have.html
SkySports Pundit and Premier League title winner no less than eight times himself, Gary Neville believes that Chelsea overcame their final hurdle of the season with the 3-0 victory over Everton on Sunday.
Looking at our remaining fixtures before the game, Everton stood out as the most difficult having won their last eight games in a row at home. That's no disrespect to the other sides we have left to face (Middlesborough, West Brom, Watford and Sunderland), but everyone in the game would agree that Everton could be the one where points could have been dropped.
Chelsea didn't have to worry apart from one or two nail-biting moments in the first half. As soon as Pedro struck from distance to give us the lead, we looked comfortable and as if we would go on to see the game out and pick up what could prove to be a vital victory. The fact that we scored three with no reply was an added bonus with the celebrations between Antonio Conte, his players and the Chelsea supporters evident that they all felt the same.
So to Gary Neville and his opinion of the title race. Speaking on his published Podcast he said:
"There are always big moments in the season but when we look back, I think Chelsea's win at Everton will be regarded as the final hurdle.
I know they've got to get over the line but just look at the fixtures they have.
The game didn't materialise as I thought it would. I've played and worked at Goodison Park and seen a hostile atmosphere develop to where it could become quite intense.
Frank Lampard mentioned the word 'emotion' in these types of games at Goodison Park, but it was a flat day. The performance of Everton never really connected with their fans, which suited Chelsea to play at a slower pace. The game drifted apart from the first 10 minutes. But Pedro's goal changed the game. Chelsea controlled it from there.
You could see from the celebrations from the Chelsea staff and players how big of a result that was." - Source: London Evening Standard.
Antonio Conte was quick to play down any talk of the victory being the last hurdle in the race for the Premier League title and once again re-iterated that we take each game at a time for the remainder of the season. He said:
"For sure today is a great result for us. To win away against Everton is not easy but I think we have to continue in this way and to go step-by-step, game-by-game and take three points every game until the end.
I think after the game that the message was not words but only great hugs.
To show great enthusiasm, great passion. We must feel that this season could become from good fantastic.
It was very important after this crucial week for us. I think we finished a crucial week very well. We all know this part of the season is more important. It was a good win for us, we must be pleased with this.
Before this game there were five games to go. Now there are four games to go. Every win is a great win." - Source: Daily Mail.
Personally for me it's only over when it is actually over as Tottenham just will not go away at the moment. They face West Ham away on Friday night and could potentially move to within a single point behind us for 72 hours before we take on Middlesborough on Monday night.
I really want to get carried away looking at our remaining home games in particular feeling as though the title is ours but as with Antonio Conte, we MUST take each game as it comes because we all know through experience what could happen.
It's important that you do not misunderstand what I am saying here, Everton was a huge and vital win but there are still four games to play.
Come on Chelsea!