Chelsea passed their toughest remaining test in the Premier League title race by overcoming Everton 3-0 at Goodison Park on Sunday afternoon.
The Blues were made to work hard for their win on Merseyside, despite the one-sided nature of the scoreline, as all three goals came in the final 25 minutes of the match.
Pedro got the ball rolling for the visitors with a sweet strike from range, before Gary Cahill and substitute Willian added to the scoring to move Chelsea seven points clear of Tottenham Hotspur ahead of second-placed Spurs' meeting with Arsenal in the late kickoff.
Everton almost opened the scoring with less than two minutes on the clock, as Dominic Calvert-Lewin - in for the injured Morgan Schneiderlin - drifted down the left and blasted a shot that came back off the post, while Cahill was there to block the follow-up attempt from Romelu Lukaku.
A minute later it was Chelsea's turn to come close to a breakthrough, Cahill this time forcing Maarten Stekelenburg into a fairly routine stop on his 150th outing for the Blues.
The home side were seeing plenty of the ball but failing to truly threaten, while their opponents created decent openings through Eden Hazard and Diego Costa, neither of which were converted.
Hazard timed his run perfectly to get in behind the Toffees' backline but could only pick out the side-netting from an angle when rounding Stekelenburg, while Costa smashed over the bar from close range after Phil Jagielka failed to truly deal with a ball over the top.
There was plenty of attention on Lukaku pre-match, but his best opening of the match saw him send a bullet shot wide of the target from 20 yards out, while up the other end Nemanja Matic was allowed to bring the ball forward and test Stekelenburg with another straightforward stop.
An inventive Chelsea corner ended with Victor Moses dragging a shot wide early in the second half, just moments before Costa caught Stekelenburg late after chasing down a weak backpass - a yellow the right call by referee Jonathan Moss, despite the protests from the home fans.
Everton required one win from their final two fixtures heading into this game to make it a club-record points tally for the season, and it was they who looked the brighter for the early parts of the second period as Lukaku cut inside and sent a shot between the sticks.
They were dealt a big blow in their hopes of reaching that target 66 minutes into the match, though, as Pedro picked out the back of the net with a fine strike from range, working a yard of space and placing the ball out of Stekelenburg's reach.
Chelsea had failed to keep out the opposition in each of their last 11 games, ensuring that hope remained for the Toffees, but they struggled to create too many openings in the remainder.
The Blues made certain of the win 11 minutes from time through another goal from Cahill, who was standing in the right place to pounce and bundle over the line when Stekelenburg poorly parried Hazard's free kick.
A third arrived late on, coming after Cesc Fabregas and Willian - both on the field for all of two minutes - combined for the latter to fire home from 10 yards out.
Spurs can close the gap on Chelsea back to four points should they beat Arsenal, but the Blues are now strong favourites to go all the way once again thanks to their favourable remaining fixtures.
Daniel Lewis
