Well Antonio Conte surprised many by selecting Spanish midfielder Cesc Fabregas to start his second match in 3 games and he responded to the faith Conte showed in him by producing a fine all around display against David Moyes’ Sunderland outfit and he capped it off with the winning goal in a tight affair played at the Stadium of Light on Wednesday night in the Premier League.
Chelsea’s scintillating run of wins in the Premier League (now sitting at 10) is certainly largely due to the consistency of selection that Antonio Conte has employed. The Chelsea manager made two changes from the side that beat West Brom 1-0 last Sunday as he was forced into both changes as he inserted Willian in place of the injured Eden Hazard. The Belgian forward suffered a nasty knock in the game vs Tony Pulis’ West Brom and not wanting to risk him Conte replaced him with the in-form Willian who arguably deserved a start vs the Baggies after scoring a fine goal vs Man City. The other change saw Nemanja Matic rested after just returning from injury which caused him to miss the City match and Conte left him out again as a precaution and restored Cesc Fabregas to the line-up in his place after he last played against Man City.
Conte almost certainly would not have made the changes unless he really thought they were necessary as he had named an unchanged team for the past 8 of 9 games previous to the Sunderland game. While Chelsea missed creator in chief Eden Hazard, Fabregas stepped into the void very well and pulled the strings and showed just what depth Chelsea have and also how Conte is being honest when he says he wants to keep Fabregas around as his creativity could prove vital down the line when injuries mount and when the manager needs to turn to an experienced player to unlock a defence. Even faced with resolute organised defending from a committed group of 7 players from Sunderland, Fabregas had the patience and vision to sneak a shot through a gap which was not seemingly there with the end result being Chelsea’s winning goal as Sunderland’s red-hot keeper Jordan Pickford was completely beaten.
Chelsea keep on picking up 1-0 wins which is starting to become a slight concern for Conte who wants to see his side being more clinical in front of goal. Speaking after the game as the BBC reported, Conte said of his team,
“When you have the possibility to kill the game you must kill the game,” he said. “We had this possibility but we didn’t and at the end Courtois made a good save. I hope in the future we can improve.”
On a night when the solid defensive unit of Moyes did a stellar job keeping Diego Costa not just off the scoresheet but also kept his influence in the game to a minimum, the Black Cats deserved a lot of credit but they could not stop the Blues despite keeper Jordan Pickford’s man-of-the-match performance. Chelsea look to have too many weapons and if they do add another big player to their squad as we wrote about earlier on in the week it may mean that their rivals will have too much to do to catch them. After Arsenal fell 2-1 to Everton, Chelsea now hold a 6 point lead over Liverpool and Arsenal at the top of the table – a nice position to be in and we all know that leading at Christmas in the Premier League has meant the team has won the last 6 of 7 titles. Antonio Conte can certainly afford the luxury of a wry smile!