“We were never going to let this slip”

You can only beat what is in front of you, and for forty-five minutes this afternoon what was in front of Chelsea was not much more than a training exercise. By the time the fourth went in, two minutes before the break, the only question left was how many. The answer, in the end, was six, and it could have been ten.

Luton came to the Drogba Arena bottom of the table, thirteen points from safety, and played like a side that knows its fate. They sat deep, they tried to keep the shape, and they were pulled apart. The first goal arrived inside eight minutes, and from there the contest was over. Francisco Pardal, the holding midfielder, met a corner with a header that flew through the middle and in. Five minutes later Lionel Messi drove low past Armando Valencia, and before the clock had reached eighteen minutes Marcelo Formicola had made it three with a low drive through the middle. The striker was the best player on the pitch by a distance, and he was not finished.

Bruce Hilgers added a fourth just before half-time with a low shot that squeezed in near a post, and the second half was a procession. Formicola volleyed in his second from close range eleven minutes after the restart, and Ken Myers, on as a substitute, hit the sixth with twenty-one minutes to play. Valencia in the Luton goal made eight saves, four of them tipped over or round the post, and without him this would have been a cricket score. The visitors managed two shots all afternoon, neither on target, and finished with ten men behind the ball and no idea how to stop the waves coming at them.

There was a nice moment for Norberto Pico, who spent two seasons at Luton back in the late fifties and left without scoring in twenty-three games. He played a part in the third, and his afternoon was a reminder of how far he has come. The Colombian right-back has been one of the unsung heroes of this Chelsea side, and he ran the game from deep. Vanja Mačkić and Urtzi San Martín at centre-back barely broke sweat, and Jamel Daoudi, in for the rested Howard Parkins, looked every inch a first-team player.

The table makes happy reading for anyone in blue. Chelsea are now on 79 points from 28 games, with a goal difference of plus 81. Rotherham United are second on 52, and Liverpool, with a game in hand, are on 51. The title race has been over for months, and this was just another afternoon of confirmation. The champions have won 26 of 28 league games, drawn one, lost one, and the only defeat came at Rotherham back in early January. Since then they have won six on the spin, and the next test is a trip to Plymouth Argyle on the 26th.

Luton, meanwhile, are staring at the Championship. Two wins all season, nine draws, sixteen defeats, and a goal difference of minus 29. The new loan signings, Adam Darfalou from Everton and Renato Bernhard from Internazionale, started and looked exactly what they are: players from bigger clubs who are not used to this kind of afternoon. Darfalou made four interceptions but was replaced after 75 minutes, and Bernhard barely touched the ball. The one bright spot was the substitute Jianwei Wang, who came on at left-back and at least tried to carry the fight.

There was a moment in the second half when the Chelsea fans behind the goal started singing about the Champions League, and you could not blame them. This side has won 41 league titles in a row, and the next one feels like a formality. The league is done, the cups are being ticked off, and the only real question is whether anyone can stop them next season. On this evidence, you would not bet on it.