Arsenal loanee Jack Wilshere believes Chelsea have the look of champions about them.
Wilshere was in the Bournemouth side who suffered a bruising 3-0 defeat at the home of the league leaders on Boxing Day as Chelsea extended their winning run to a club record 12 Premier League matches.
And with Antonio Conte’s men having opened up a six point lead at the top of the table Wilshere said he may well have seen the champions in waiting.
“They look like champions at the minute,” Wilshere told reporters. “For me, right now, they’re the best team in the league.
“There’s still a long way to go, so you can’t say they’re definitely going to win the league – but they look like the strongest.”
Wilshere has made no secret of his desire to see his parent club Arsenal end their 12-and-a-half year wait for a Premier League title in his absence but the Gunners have slipped back just as Chelsea began to set a formidable pace.
Arsenal returned to winning ways on Boxing Day, sneaking past West Brom thanks to Olivier Giroud’s 86th minute header, but were unable to bridge the nine point gap to their London rivals.
Indeed it was Chelsea’s 3-0 defeat at the Emirates that proved to be a turning point for Conte, who switched the Blues formation to 3-4-3, a move which Wilshere feels has only made the perennially hard-to-beat Blues an even more formidable opponent.
“They’ve found this new formation that works for them,” he said. “I’ve always thought it’s a tough place to come anyway. I’ve been here a few times with Arsenal, and we’ve only won once, but they’re more ruthless now.
“They know what the job in hand is. They go out there and – week in, week out – change their gameplan depending on who they play. That’s the sign of a top team. They’ve got a structure with [Nemanja] Matic and [Cesc] Fabregas holding in there, and players like [Eden] Hazard and Willian, who were both different class against us.”
