Can you make a case for Chelsea being stripped of 2016-17 title?

· BBC-Football

Does Mauricio Pochettino have a case that Tottenham should be retrospectively crowned Premier League champions?

The Blues fought off most of Europe's top clubs to sign him from Lille for £32m in the summer of 2012.

Between May 2013 and August 2016, according to the investigation, seven payments totalling £5.6m were made to an unregistered agent "for the benefit of the club in connection with Hazard's transfer".

Pochettino's argument is that Spurs could have beaten other clubs to the signing of players of similar ability had they also ignored the rules.

What about Hazard's impact in the 2016-17 season?

It was considerable.

The Belgium forward started 36 Premier League games, scored 16 goals and provided five assists. Only Cesar Azpilicueta started more matches, and only Diego Costa netted more goals (20).

Hazard was Chelsea 's player of the year, was named in the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) team of the year, and made the shortlist for PFA player of the year.

Then there's the direct impact of his goals and assists in the results of four fixtures.

Hazard scored the first goal in a 2-1 win over West Ham in August, then scored a goal and provided an assist in a 2-0 victory over Southampton in November.

In March he scored the opener as Chelsea again beat the Hammers 2-1, and got both goals in a 2-0 win over Manchester City in April.

You could argue that input was worth 10 points.

There is no doubt that Hazard had a huge influence, but this was his fifth season at the club. It was not as if Chelsea signed him in the summer of 2016.

Willian - hugely influential bit-part role

Willian joined Chelsea from Anzhi Makhachkala in 2013, with the investigation finding that transfer fee payments totalling £19.2m were made to two unregistered entities in connection with his move and that of Samuel Eto'o.

Willian was not a regular starter in 2016-17, with 19 of his 34 appearances coming from the bench.

But he still had a huge influence, scoring eight goals and providing eight assists.

The Brazilian's attacking returns were crucial in four matches.

He had an assist in a 1-0 win at Sunderland in December. He scored two goals in a 4-2 victory over Stoke in December, and the first goal as Chelsea beat Stoke 2-1 in March. He provided an assist for the winning goal in a 4-3 victory over Watford in May.

His contributions helped Chelsea take eight points from those fixtures.

Crucially, Chelsea nipped in at the last minute to sign Willian from under the noses of Spurs, who might argue that was only because of the secret payments.

The transfers of David Luiz and Willian were part of the investigation into illegal payments

Matic and Luiz - players who left and came back

The investigation found that Chelsea made payments totalling £5.1m between 2012 and 2015 "to provide talent identification services in certain European countries".

This was identified as payments in relation to the registrations of Ramires, Luiz, Schurrle and Matic.

However, by 2016-17 Matic and Luiz were in their second spells at Chelsea . The deal with Benfica which meant Matic and Luiz swapped clubs in 2011 was looked into.

Matic returned to Stamford Bridge in 2014, with Luiz having a spell at Paris St-Germain from 2014 to 2016.

While the deals that took the players back to Chelsea were not specifically referenced, the association was created.

Matic played 35 league games in 2016-17, including 30 in the starting XI. He scored one goal and set up seven.

Only one of those attacking contributions influenced a result, but that was an assist for Chelsea 's first goal in a 2-1 win over Tottenham in November.

Luiz, who was named in the PFA team of the season, started 33 matches and scored one goal - the opener in a 1-1 draw at Liverpool in January.

Did Chelsea's breaches really impact the title?

Tottenham were relentless at the end of the 2016-17 season, winning 12 of their final 13 matches to finish on 86 points.

Yet Antonio Conte's Chelsea were almost as relentless, winning 11 of their last 13 to take the title with 93 points.

Spurs' tally would have been enough for the title in 2015-16, when Leicester finished on 81.

However, since 1999-2000, when Manchester United were champions on 79 points, 86 points would only have won the title twice, including the two most recent seasons.

Tottenham 's problem in 2016-17 was too many draws at the start of the campaign. Despite an unbeaten 11-game start, only five of those were victories.

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