Fabregas’ superb strike keeps Chelsea in the hunt for top-four finish
Chelsea boosted their hopes of catching Tottenham Hotspur in the race to finish in the top four with a hard-earned win against Swansea City.
The Liberty Stadium exploded into life with less than five minutes on the clock as a mazy run from Eden Hazard ended with the Belgian forward playing in the onrushing Cesc Fabregas to curl a superb left-foot finish round the despairing dive on Lukasz Fabianski.
The victory saw Chelsea cut fourth-placed Tottenham’s advantage down to two points, with Mauricio Pochettino’s team to face Watford today.
Southampton had boosted their hopes of survival as two goals from Dusan Tadic gave them a 2-1 victory over Bournemouth.
It was the club’s first win since Mark Hughes took over as manager.
“Everyone knew the circumstance, we needed a win and draw or a loss wouldn’t do. This is only a part of what we need to do, but good for us,” Hughes told the BBC.
The result moves them to three points behind Huddersfield Town, who lost 2-0 at Everton, and West Ham United, who entertain champions Manchester City today.
Hughes added: “We need to have the teams above us looking over their shoulder, and this result does that. They know we have good quality, we just need to keep momentum. If we keep going like today it will go close.”
Huddersfield were beaten by goals from Cenk Tosun and Idrissa Gueye, and their manager David Wagner said it was important the players remain positive. “The players need a lift and we will give them that,” he said.
“We had good momentum. We will fight until the final end.”
One club who appear to be safe are Crystal Palace who moved six points clear of the bottom three in 11th place as they thrashed Leicester City 5-0 with Wilfried Zaha, James McArthur, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Patrick van Aanholt and a Christian Benteke penalty accounting for the goals.
It has been an impressive turnaround for the London
side, given they lost their first seven games of the season, and manager Roy Hodgson is proud of his side’s achievement.
“Sometimes the celebrations come at times when you don’t expect,” the former England manager said. “It is a case of relief more than celebration. We will save the celebrations for the end of the season.”
Brighton & Hove Albion also took a step closer to staying in the top flight as Chris Hughton’s side played out a goalless draw at seventh-placed Burnley. They are five points clear of Southampton.