Chelsea extend their stay at the summit

LONDON: Chelsea kept up its remorseless march to the English Premier League title with a 4-0 thrashing of Tottenham on Saturday.

With none of its title rivals — Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City —in league action this weekend, Chelsea provisionally extended its lead to seven points after capitalizing on a woeful second half from Spurs to score all its goals in the final 34 minutes.

Samuel Eto´o opened the scoring and then was fouled in the area by Younes Kaboul, earning the French defender a straight red card.

Eden Hazard converted the 60th-minute penalty, and substitute Demba Ba added two late goals in the space of 75 seconds.

Liverpool and Arsenal are seven points behind the leaders with a game in hand but Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho still thinks Manchester City, which is nine points adrift in fourth place having played three matches less, is the title favorite. "We don´t have control of our destiny," Mourinho said, "if we win all our matches then maybe we are not champions. If Man City win all their games, they are champions."

Mourinho is a game closer to winning the title in his first season back at Stamford Bridge and Chelsea´s run-in is easier than all its rivals, with Arsenal at home and Liverpool away the only tough matches, on paper, at least.

With seven clean sheets in its last 10 league games and unbeaten in 14 matches, the team is grinding out wins even when it isn´t playing well. "We´re grinding out results like the old Mourinho teams," Chelsea captain John Terry said.

The game turned on a mistake by Spurs defender Jan Vertonghen, who slipped and compounded his error by trying to hook the ball back to his goalkeeper.

Eto´o nipped in and slotted a low finish into the corner. Kaboul´s red card then spelt the end for Tottenham. (AP)