Any
travelling Chelsea fans expecting a procession towards the title were given a
reality check inside the opening 30 seconds when Thibaut Courtois was forced
into an early save, tipping Salomon Rondon's header over the crossbar.
The visitors
did soon take control of possession, but they struggled to break down a
stubborn West Brom defence, with Pedro squandering his side's best sights of
goal in the opening 20 minutes.
Baggies boss
Tony Pulis was fulfilling his promise to make things difficult for the title
chasers, with West Brom themselves looking to take another step closer to both
a top-half finish and a club-record points tally in the Premier League.
Chelsea's
only shot on target of the first half arrived after 25 minutes, and even that
never truly troubled Ben Foster in the West Brom goal as he comfortably scooped
up Cesar Azpilicueta's tame effort.
Cesc
Fabregas - who kept his place in the side ahead of fit-again N'Golo Kante
following his man-of-the-match performance against Middlesbrough on Monday
night - came as close as anyone to breaking the deadlock in the first half when
he drilled a low strike narrowly wide of the far post shortly after the
half-hour mark.
The best
chance of the first half fell the way of Pedro, but he also fired an effort
wide of the far post having created a yard of space for himself just inside the
penalty area.
After an
underwhelming first half that failed to lived up to the expected party
atmosphere, Chelsea made a quicker start to the second half and Foster was
called into his first testing save within two minutes of the restart when he
got down well to tip a Victor Moses drive around the post.
The West
Brom keeper was called into action again one minute later, but this time it was
a more routine stop as he gathered Diego Costa's attempted bicycle kick.
The visitors
continued to probe for the breakthrough and Fabregas was the next to come close
when his swerving drive flew just wide of the far post after a prolonged spell
of pressure from Chelsea.
West Brom
were fortunate to avoid an own goal when Craig Dawson turned the ball against a
teammate when looking to intercept a low Hazard cross, before Moses stung the
palms of Foster with a powerful long-range drive moments later.
The Baggies
soon stemmed the flow of Chelsea attacks, though, and it was they who began to
look most like scoring over the next 20 minutes or so, with both Rondon and
Nacer Chadli failing to make the most of quick breaks that caught Chelsea short
at the back.
The defining
moment came with just eight minutes remaining of the contest, though, and it
was Batshuayi - on as part of a double change which was Eden Hazard and Pedro
replaced - who grabbed the title-winning goal at the end of the largely
frustrating season on a personal level.
Gary
Cahill's sliced effort found its way to Cesar Azpilicueta, who turned the ball
back into the middle for an unmarked Batshuayi to sweep home for just his
second Premier League goal of the season.
That proved
to be enough as Chelsea saw out the game to wrap up their sixth top-flight
title and fifth in the past 13 season, a tally on Manchester United can match
over that period.
Conte,
meanwhile, becomes only the fourth manager to win the Premier League title in
his first season in English football history, while it is also his fourth
consecutive league title in club football having steered Juventus to three straight
Serie A crowns before leaving to take charge of Italy.
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