Chelsea are virtual locks to win the Premier League title after Stoke City victory

Chelsea's win over Stoke City on Saturday has left Chelsea firmly in command of the Premier League title race. With the victory, Jose Mourinho's side have just eight matches left to play, and taking 16 points from those matches would assure that none of their rivals could catch them.  With that in mind, I've decided take a look at the total points Chelsea have taken from every eight-match stretch* of Premier League play throughout the 2014/15 season, to see how often the Blues have managed to take 16 or more points.

*Matches 1-8, matches 2-9, matches 3-10, etc.

Here are those totals, listed chronologically:

22, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 17, 17, 19, 19, 19, 17, 14, 16, 16, 17, 17, 17, 15, 17, 18, 18, 18

Out of 23 separate 8-match samples, Chelsea have taken enough points to assure they'd clinch the title on 21 occasions. On a 22nd, they did enough to assure that only Manchester City could potentially draw level, while only once taking few enough points from a possible 24 for Arsenal to possibly catch the Blues (which would still take things to the tiebreaker, if Arsenal managed to win out).

Chelsea don't have the title wrapped up yet, but they've done enough that it would probably require one of their rivals winning out on top of Chelsea playing their worst football of the season for anyone else to wind up lifting the Premier League trophy. At this point, the odds are very heavily stocked in Chelsea's favor.