Congratulations, Chelsea, on winning the 2016-17 Premier League title.Okay, so that’s a bit premature. Chelsea haven’t sewn up the title yet.But Arsene Wenger has more chance of receiving flowers from Arsenal’s fans than the Blues have of throwing the title away following Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-0 defeat to West Ham United on Friday evening.The result leaves Chelsea needing two wins from their final four matches to seal their second championship in four years. They face 19th-placed Middlesbrough at home on Monday evening before travelling to West Brom on Friday.Antonio Conte has West Ham to thank following their 1-0 win at the London Stadium.Manuel Lanzini was the Hammers’ - and Chelsea’s - hero, smashing the ball home from close range after Tottenham failed to clear the danger.It was a huge night for West Ham, who cherish any victory over Spurs, but an even bigger one for the champions-elect.
Dier: It's nearly impossible now
Even Eric Dier was ready to concede Spurs’ chances are “nearly impossible” now.
"It was already going to be hard before, so now it's even harder. That's all I can say really," he said, per Goal.
"It's disappointing really because we were on a fantastic run and we didn't think it was going to stop.
"They made it hard for us, they played very deep and we couldn't create many chances."
Spurs tried their hardest - but it wasn't enough
Spurs hadn’t lost since February before last night, and were on an impressive run of nine straight wins. There really wasn’t much more they could have done in 2017 to keep their title hopes alive into May but it goes to show just how consistently good Chelsea have been this season.
"We brought it [the deficit to Chelsea] back to four points but after today it's nearly impossible now,” Dier added.
"We'll give everything for these last three games, no matter what."
Special win for West Ham
In a way, this was West Ham’s cup final. Slaven Bilic’s men have had little to shout about this season but matches against Spurs are always highly-anticipated.
What makes this one extra-special for West Ham supporters is that it ended Spurs’ title dreams.
And you got the sense that West Ham’s Twitter account really, really enjoyed last night.
West Ham trolled Spurs on Twitter
The club’s official account tweeted three simple words at full-time: “It’s happened again.”
For the second straight season, Tottenham went to West Ham’s stadium and lost.
And there’s also the sinking feeling of knowing that, this week last year, Spurs’ title chase was also ended with a 2-2 draw at Chelsea.
Sorry, Tottenham fans. It’s happened again.