Chelsea striker Didier Drogba (left) fights for the ball with Federico Fazio, of Tottenham, at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea’s inexorable Premier League title march continued with a consummate 3-0 triumph over Tottenham Hotspur as champions Manchester City stayed second with a 4-1 canter at Sunderland last night.

Southampton’s challenge suffered further deflation with a 1-0 defeat at Arsenal, but the pacesetters took full advantage with Chelsea making it 21 games unbeaten this season thanks to goals from Eden Hazard, Didier Drogba and Loic Remy.

Even without suspended top scorer Diego Costa, the 36-year-old Drogba proved an ageless replacement, scoring within two minutes of Hazard’s 19th-minute opener before Remy replaced him and netted to seal the points.

Chelsea’s victory, which continued their amazing record of being unbeaten by Spurs at Stamford Bridge for 24 years, maintained their six-point lead over City, who came from behind to crush Sunderland.

The champions were once again grateful to the league’s leading marksman Sergio Aguero who produced a sublime display, scoring twice with his 13th and 14th league goals of the season.

The Argentine struck two minutes after Connor Wickham had put Sunderland ahead on 19 minutes, equalising with the sweetest of strikes.

He then set up Stevan Jovetic six minutes before the break, Pablo Zabaleta added a third and Aguero completed the rout.

Southampton slumped to a second successive defeat with an 89th-minute Alexis Sanchez goal finally breaking their resistance at the Emirates.

They are now 10 points adrift of Chelsea but for most of the night, it had seemed that Fraser Forster’s heroic efforts in the Southampton goal would earn them a point until Sanchez struck to put Arsenal in sixth place, 13 points behind Chelsea.

Results

Premier League

Arsenal 1
Sanchez 89;
Southampton 0

HT: 0-0. Att: 60,025.

Chelsea 3
Hazard 19; Drogba 22; Remy 73;
Tottenham 0

HT: 2-0. Att: 41,518.

Everton 1
Lukaku 34;
Hull 1
Aluko 59;

HT: 1-0. Att: 34,645.

Sunderland 1
Wickham 19;
Man. City 4
Aguero 21, 71; Jovetic 39; Zabaleta 55;

HT: 1-2. Att: 41,152.