Chelsea's 1-0 win over Manchester United on Saturday opened up a 10-point lead and sent the engravers off to sharpen their tools as the Londoners' name looks set to be carved on the Premier League trophy. Chelsea's performances have been far from dazzling in recent weeks but Eden Hazard's first-half strike at Stamford Bridge was enough to ease fan fears of any end-of-season jitters and ensure they will be champions if they win their next two matches.
Jose Mourinho's side have 76 points from 32 matches, 10 more than second-placed Arsenal, who beat Reading 2-1 in Saturday's FA Cup semi-final at Wembley.
United, whose run of six straight league wins came to an end despite dominating the play against a defensive Chelsea, remain third on 65 points but rivals Manchester City could move a point behind them if they beat West Ham United on Sunday.
"We are focused on us, we have six matches to play," Mourinho told Sky Sports. "The game was exactly the game we want.
"The only thing we couldn't do was to kill the game with a second goal. We were able to make their important players disappear. Nobody saw them. They were in our pockets."
Elsewhere, Leicester City claimed a third successive Premier League victory and moved off the bottom thanks to a 2-0 home win against Swansea City.
Burnley are the new basement side after a 1-0 defeat at Everton, while Stoke City beat Southampton 2-1 and West Bromwich Albion triumphed 2-0 over Crystal Palace.
United made a confident start despite missing a number of defensive players because of injury and being forced to play Wayne Rooney in midfield.
However, their hard work was undone when Hazard collected Oscar's neat backheel and cut in from the left to score after 38 minutes. Chelsea, who last won the league in 2010, were looking to exploit United on the counter attack and Hazard flicked a shot onto the crossbar at the start of the second half after Didier Drogba's initial shot deflected off defender Chris Smelling.
Struggling 10-man Burnley had no such luck in their bid for survival as they sunk to the bottom of the pile on 26 points from 33 games after a 1-0 defeat at 12th-placed Everton.
Stoke City claimed their first victory in five matches and moved up to ninth after coming from behind to beat sixth-placed Southampton 2-1 at the Britannia Stadium, hurting the visitors' hopes of Champions League football.
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