The Warm-Up: Chelsea stride towards the title, Boro slip meekly down

It has of course been inevitable for a little while now, but Chelsea took another meaty step towards confirming the Premier League title on Monday evening, as they flexed a muscle and barged Middlesbrough aside, a 3-0 win only just summing up the gulf in class between the two sides.

Goals from Diego Costa, Marcos Alonso and Nemanja Matic were enough to take the three points, and to merely add a little garnish to the humiliation, all three went into the net after passing between Boro keeper Brad Guzan’s legs. One assumes he wishes he hadn’t bothered getting out of bed on Monday morning.

Chelsea can now confirm the title at the glamorous surroundings of the Hawthorns on Friday, where a win over West Brom will seal a success that looked particularly unlikely when they were beaten 2-1 at home by Liverpool and given a firm 3-0 shoeing by Arsenal back in September. There have been one or two hiccups along the way, but broadly speaking Chelsea have yomped to this title, displaying few of the frailties that have left the rest grasping in their wake.

“This was a big, big step for us,” said Antonio Conte afterwards. “A big win. Last season was very bad and this season, don’t forget, we started with a lot of problems. Now we have done very well to find the right way and have a fantastic season. But we need to take another step and only then to celebrate. Now we are very close – we must be honest – but we need another little step.”

Mixed emotions, to say the least at the Bridge last night. While Chelsea celebrated almost being champions, Middlesbrough mourned the confirmation of their relegation from the Premier League, a year and a day after their promotion to it was sealed.

In the end this has been something of a meek campaign, Boro slipping out of the top flight with a mild whimper, relegated along with their (sort of) neighbours Sunderland as Newcastle pass them both on their way back.

Of course it’s easy to view these things through the dazzling clarity of hindsight, but keeping faith with Aitor Karanka for so long was a significant error by the admirably loyal chairman Steve Gibson. And that error was compounded by the decision, when Karanka eventually did leave, to merely elevate his assistant Steve Agnew rather than bringing in a proper replacement. Why, having decided that a managerial regime is not up to snuff, keep one of that regime in charge?

They now drop back into the Championship, and while they will be in a decent position to go straight back up, particularly with the usually excellent Gibson in charge, this was an opportunity missed.

We won’t add too much else to this clip from Sulley Muntari’s interview with CNN on the racism he suffers in the game. He says all there is to say. Watch, take it in.

Quite a tone-shift here, for which we apologise. The Warm Up does not necessarily endorse or encourage the concept of ‘banter’, that most tiresome of things that is almost always the last refuge of the witless. But we bring you news of a bon mot from Real Madrid bench-warmer Isco, who while his team were giving hapless Granada what for at the weekend, spotted the natty waistcoat that manager Tony Adams was wearing, and hollered “Hey waiter! A Coca Cola!”

And he didn’t even say please. Luka Modric looks delighted by the quip, mind.

In Monday’s Warm-Up, Adam Hurrey declared Jurgen Klopp was a ‘zero’ for blaming his side’s inability to beat Southampton on a “dry pitch”. But we dispute this: is it not a further sign that Klopp is ready to duke it out with the big boys, that he is ready to compete with the best of them. After all, it takes huge, massive, wheelbarrow-filling cojones to come up with an excuse that ridiculous, so we say hats off to him.

The Champions League semi-final second leg between Monaco and Juventus takes place tonight, and while the tie is virtually over, let’s have a look at the last time the two sides faced each other at this stage of the competition, and in similar circumstances too. Back in 1998 Juve won the first leg handily (4-1), but Monaco salvaged a little pride with a 3-2 victory in the return.

Over on Football365, John Nicholson writes that the hate we thought was necessary in football diminishes us all.

The big one, as we’ve established, is Juventus v Monaco, but there’s a danger it could be the dampest of squibs, a wet fart of a game as Juve doggedly defend their 3-0 lead from the first leg. For a potentially more ding-dong tussle, may we interest you, sir, or you, madam, in the Scottish Championship playoff quarter-final between Dundee and Greenock Morton. To give you a quick overview of the format: the teams in second, third and fourth enter the playoffs, with third and fourth (tonight’s opponents) facing each other in the quarters, then the winner will play the team who finished second (in this case Falkirk) and the winner of that one will face the second-bottom team in the Premiership, currently Motherwell. Clear? Good.