ONE team are champions, the other are Championship. While Chelsea celebrated a fifth Premier League title, Sunderland’s ten-year stay in the top-flight came to an end with a fittingly emphatic defeat. Goodness only knows when they will return.

As was the case at Arsenal on Tuesday, David Moyes made a hasty getaway at the final whistle, blanking the Sunderland fans camped in the far corner of Stamford Bridge, but if he opts to remain in place after meeting Ellis Short later this week, he will not be able to ignore the chronic failings that have resulted in the Black Cats’ relegation this season.

This is a Sunderland team that have careered into the Championship in a humiliating fashion, winning just six of their 38 matches and claiming just 24 points. Statistically, they are better than the teams that Mick McCarthy guided into the second tier – but in terms of the deficiencies in their attitude and ability, there is no much in it.

Jordan Pickford was there at the final whistle, throwing his top into the away fans, but even Jermain Defoe, who played no part in yesterday’s game because of injury, could only muster a cursory clap in the general direction of the away end. Come August, a host of these players will be nowhere near Wearside. Their current employers, however, will be taking on the likes of Millwall and Burton. Those who have failed on the field will head elsewhere, but the mess they leave behind will take an awfully long time to repair.

Whether Moyes is the man to take on that rebuild remains to be seen, but having claimed a shock early lead through Javier Manquillo, yesterday’s capitulation provided a final reminder of just how poor this Sunderland side is. Chelsea scored five, and could easily have had as many again. That one of the goals involved a farcical mix-up initiated by the hapless Joleon Lescott seemed fitting.

It was a miserable end to the season, and it wasn’t even as though the long-suffering Sunderland fans could say a proper farewell to Defoe. The England international will be off this summer, and there is a good chance that more than half of yesterday’s starting line-up will be leaving with him.

Lescott, John O’Shea and Seb Larsson are out of contract, Manquillo and Adnan Januzaj are at the end of their loan deals, and Jordan Pickford, Jack Rodwell and Fabio Borini could well be sacrificed as Sunderland attempt to deal with the financial fall-out from their demotion to the Championship. This was the end of an era, in more ways than one.

It could be the start of a new period of dominance at Stamford Bridge, and while the mood in the away camp was funereal, Chelsea’s celebrations could hardly have been more euphoric. Written off as European hopefuls at best at the start of the season, and seemingly in a state of collapse when they lost to both Liverpool and Arsenal in September, Antonio Conte has transformed Chelsea into thoroughly deserving champions.

For all that Tottenham might trump them when it comes to the attractiveness of their playing style, the Blues have been the best all-round team in the country by a distance this season. Yesterday’s victory was their 30th of the campaign – a Premier League record – and only the Chelsea team of 2004-05 have bettered their final total of 93 points in the Premier League era.

They boast star performers all over the field, but yesterday’s game saw one man feted above all others. John Terry’s 717th senior appearance as a Chelsea player was also his last. “Captain, Leader, Legend” states the banner draped on the Matthew Harding Stand. You can now add the word, “Gone”.

Terry’s Chelsea team-mates afforded him a guard of honour when he was substituted in the 26th minute – his shirt number – and while it was somewhat jarring to see a player granted what was effectively a testimonial during a supposedly competitive fixture, it was nevertheless fitting that the skipper’s final act was to hoist the Premier League trophy above his head. Having been granted a rare start by Antonio Conte, he didn’t even have to change out of his suit to do it.

He wasn’t able to celebrate a clean sheet during his final outing as a Chelsea player though, with his 26 minutes on the field featuring that rarest of things – a Sunderland goal. It came from the Black Cats’ opening attack, and while it featured a sizeable element of luck as Larsson’s free-kick deflected invitingly to Manquillo, the defender still displayed commendable composure as he lashed past Thibaut Courtois.

It was Manquillo’s first goal of the season, making him Sunderland’s joint fourth-highest goalscorer. Clearly, that speaks volumes for the Black Cats’ lack of attacking threat throughout the campaign.

The third-minute strike seemed to stir Chelsea from their end-of-season slumbers, and the hosts restored parity five minutes later. Marcos Alonso, once a Sunderland loanee, fired a 20-yard free-kick against the crossbar, and after the hosts kept the ball alive, David Luiz teed up Willian for a low angled drive that whistled into the corner.

For the next 15 minutes, Chelsea swarmed all over their opponents, but a combination of some profligate finishing and inspired goalkeeping from Pickford meant they were unable to claim the lead.

Pickford’s best save saw him tip Victor Moses’ rising drive over the crossbar, while Diego Costa volleyed into the side netting when Luiz’s floated free-kick found him in space at the back post.

Costa combined some smart first touches with some rather-less-palatable histrionics that saw him fall to the ground clutching his face after an innocuous clash with John O’Shea. Chelsea’s leading goalscorer can be brilliant, but if he is to leave for a multi-million pound contract in China this summer, the Premier League will not miss his play-acting.

Other than for their goal, Sunderland’s first-half threat was limited to the occasional counter-attack, although they came close to reclaiming the lead on the stroke of half-time. Another deflected Larsson free-kick fell invitingly for O’Shea, but the centre-half could only drill a tame shot straight at Courtois.

Larsson’s set-pieces caused a problem all afternoon, and when the Swede swung over a corner six minutes into the second half, Courtois had to get down well to keep out Rodwell’s downward header.

Luiz narrowly failed to reach Moses’ driven cross at the other end, but Chelsea finally made their superiority count shortly after the hour mark. It could hardly have been a simpler effort, with Costa teeing up Hazard on the edge of the area for a low drive that was arrowed into the far corner.

All that was missing was a farcical Sunderland error to cap their final game, and it duly arrived with 13 minutes left. Lescott was making his first Black Cats start after being misguidedly signed as a free agent in January, and instead of dealing with Fabregas’ long ball over the top, he senselessly looped a header over the advancing Pickford. Pedro reacted quickest, and was left with the simple task of nodding home Chelsea’s third.

A fourth goal arrived in the final minute, with Pedro picking apart the Sunderland defence to slip through Michy Batshuayi, who prodded home a first-time finish, and Chelsea’s striking substitute added a fifth in the second minute of stoppage time when he cut inside Oviedo to rifle home.