Sunday 9 April 2017 13:59, UK
Chelsea are the complete package and will be worthy champions if they go on to win this season's Premier League, according to the Sunday Supplement panel.
Antonio Conte's side beat Bournemouth 3-1 at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday evening to maintain their seven-point lead over Tottenham Hotspur in the race for the title.
However, with just seven games left to play this campaign, the Blues are now within touching distance of a fifth Premier League crown.
And with this Chelsea team currently containing very few weaknesses, no one can dispute that they deserve to be champions, says John Cross.
"They have the mentality of champions," the Daily Mirror's chief football writer told the show.
"Yesterday (Saturday) was the performance of champions and against Man City, that was the grit of champions. They are the complete package, absolutely remarkable against Bournemouth bearing in mind they knew the gap was down to four points before kick-off.
"Chelsea had to respond and having seen them yesterday, you would not back against them going to Man Utd (next Sunday) and winning simply because they are so strong and resolute.
"They are determined in everything they do, they are focused and their level of performance was really eye catching. Diego Costa is not actually playing that well at the moment, but they are still winning.
"And as good as Spurs are, Chelsea are so impressive and the job that Antonio Conte has done this season is remarkable bringing this squad together. And they will be very worthy champions and seven points is plenty with seven games to go."
Dominic Fifield thinks that the man who should get all the praise for how Chelsea have performed so far this season is Conte, who only took charge at Stamford Bridge last summer.
I think we will see four, possibly five big signings this summer
"You have to contrast it with the mess they were in last season when those players looked broken for a lot of last season," said the Guardian's London football correspondent.
"The manner in which he has moulded them as a group and collective has been very impressive. The City win summed them up as the first half they were very expansive, they were scintillating and playing at their attacking best and went 2-1 up.
"And then the grit clicked in and they ground out the second half. As a team, they can play either way and too many of the top teams - like City and Liverpool - can only play one way. They can't mix and match like that to make sure they get a result.
"And Conte deserves all the credit for having achieved that. Chelsea have not kept a clean sheet in the league since January, but in the nine games that they have been conceding goals, they have still got 20 points in that period, which is staggering.
"There are very few weaknesses in that collective, it is a small group, but it is a strong group.
Despite their expected title win this season, however, Chelsea will still look to strengthen their squad by bringing in a number of marquee signings this summer, according to Fifield.
"It is a completely different scenario next season and he (Conte) recognises that and has already had a meeting with [Chelsea chief executive] Marina Granovskaia to plan recruitment for the summer," he said. "And I think we will see four, possibly five big signings this summer."
"And we may even go back to more of the slightly more lavish spending of the early era of Roman Abramovich, although I do not think it will be quite the mind-boggling levels of the early days.
"But I do think they will make significant signings and you only have to look at the players they are being linked with heavily, and there is a reason for that - Alexis Sanchez, Romelu Lukaku, Tiemoue Bakayoko at Monaco, Virgil van Dijk at Southampton and people of this calibre.
"They do recognise that they have to strengthen up and down that team, with the Champions League in mind. And they want to compete in the Champions League, they don't just want to get through the group and see that as a success.
"Conte wants to be winning the Champions League and some time soon, so they need to strengthen."
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