Chelsea maintained their firm grip on the Premier League title with a 2-1 win over London rivals West Ham on Monday night regaining their ten point lead atop the table.

With Liverpool, Manchester City and, more importantly, Tottenham all picking up wins over the weekend, Antonio Conte will have wanted his side to go out at the London Stadium, ignoring the pressure, and keep things going in their title push.

Going into the Monday Night Football clash with Slaven Bilic’s side, the Blues will have been wary of the returning Andy Carroll.

The former Liverpool and Newcastle man was the ideal option to exploit the only weak point in Conte’s defence to have been exposed thus far this season.

During Spurs’ win over the west Londoners earlier this season, Mauricio Pochetiino’s side showed that with an early cross, space can be found in the air between the less physically imposing, in comparison to David Luiz and Gary Cahill, Victor Moses and Cesar Azpilicueta. England international Dele Alli found said space twice and, with some vision and a good ball from Christian Eriksen, exploited it to take three points.

With a striker such as Carroll leading the line, you would imagine the likes of Sofiane Feghouli and Robert Snodgrass would be looking for that early ball every time they went forward.

As soon as the Hammers picked up the ball in the opposing half, a rather weary looking Carroll peeled off into the gap between the wing-back and right-sided defender of the three, but time and again there was no early ball, with the wide opting to go for the byline every time they got forward.

This could be put down to West Ham not having the best plan of attack in terms of breaking down the Blues, however, every manager worth his salt will have watched the tapes of Spurs’ win over Chelsea time and again and, if I can notice the opportunity to exploit that space, then they certainly can.

Therefore, it points to something which Chelsea themselves are doing to stop those early crosses reaching the likes of Carroll at the far post.

It is no coincidence that Tottenham are the only side we have seen pull off such a tactic this season. Pochettino’s side are, of course, enjoying one of their best seasons and are a highly talented side, which does help.

However, Conte will have noted the frailty and quickly moved to put an end to it. As soon as the ball reached an area where a whipped ball into the big Geordie was plausible, those in possession were doubled up on, with N’Golo Kante putting in a shift to drop onto that solid back five and, thus, forcing the Hammers wide.

As soon as Bilic’s wide men are forced to the byline, they now have to pick out Carroll amidst a sea of Chelsea shirts, with Cahill and Luiz in the way.

Should Conte’s side keep this up for the Premier League run in then, whilst it already looks inevitable, there is no catching them.