Chelsea avenged their FA Cup final defeat against Leicester by defeating the Foxes 2-1 at Stamford Bridge.
Second-half goals from Antonio Rudiger and Jorginho were enough to seal all the points for the Blues despite Kelechi Iheanacho halving the deficit.
The victory sees Chelsea leapfrog Leicester into third position in the league and a victory against Aston Villa on the final day of the season will guarantee Champions League qualification regardless of Liverpool’s results.
Contrastingly for the Foxes, finishing in the top four is now in the balance as Liverpool could draw level on points with Leicester with a win against Burnley and due to their superior goal difference it would see the Foxes drop out of the Champions League spots ahead of the final game of the season.
Thomas Tuchel rages at VAR
Despite winning the match, Thomas Tuchel was left frustrated by yet another VAR decision that went against his team in the first half.
Timo Werner was clearly brought down by Youri Tielemans but the foul was given against the German striker instead.
Speaking on the incident, Thomas Tuchel said: ‘It’s a clear penalty, we have had three decisions from VAR in our last three matches that have been horrible decisions.
‘It is three times in a row now: we had a goalscoring opportunity against Arsenal denied by a handball, we conceded a goal against Leicester in the cup through the use of a hand and then today we should have had that penalty but it is a foul against us, this has to stop.
‘The cup final defeat had no influence on us today, we were fired up from our defeat against Arsenal last week, that was the real setback, the cup final performance was good we were just unlucky.
‘It was an outstanding performance today and our fans were amazing but now is not the time to celebrate, we still have two more games to go.’
Fans encourage fast Chelsea start
Eight-thousand Chelsea fans were in attendance for the Blues’ final home game of the season and they made their presence felt from the start giving their players a boost in the process.
Chelsea flew out of the blocks and Werner’s clever turn in the centre circle had the fans on their feet before the chance that followed was struck wide by Ben Chilwell.
N’Golo Kante then tested the hands of Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel and the Denmark international did well to palm the ball wide of the goal.
Then came the bizarre penalty incident as Werner stole in on Tielemans and looked to have gained possession of the ball before being kicked by the Belgian midfielder. However, Mike Dean awarded a free-kick to the Foxes and VAR took little time to dismiss the incident.
Werner was at the heart of a dominant first-half display from Chelsea and the German had the ball in the net only for VAR to correctly rule it out for offside.
Incredibly VAR then intervened once again to deny the Blues and Werner another goal just 15 minutes later as the striker turned in Reece James’ corner with his arm.
Mason Mount and Thiago Silva also went close in the first half but, despite having 12 attempts on goal in total, Chelsea could not break the deadlock before the teams went down the tunnel at half-time.
Stalemate broken
However, it took just two minutes of the second half for that to change as Rudiger bundled the ball home from two yards out from a Chilwell corner.
The Blues did eventually get a penalty in the 65th minute and it was Werner again who was fouled this time by Wesley Fofana.
Jorginho stepped up to take the resulting penalty and coolly stroked the ball past Schmeichel to double Chelsea’s advantage.
Despite their dominance, the Blues had their lead halved with 14 minutes to play as Wilfred Ndidi pounced on a loose touch from Mateo Kovacic before teeing up Iheanacho to score.
The Foxes then spurned a glorious chance to snatch a point at Stamford Bridge in the 90th minute as Ayoze Perez blazed a free shot over the bar from 18 yards out.
Tempers flared towards the end of the match but Chelsea managed to hold on to put them in pole position to qualify for the Champions League next season.
