Fabregas marks his milestone in style as Blues win at a canter
CHELSEA 3 Fabregas (19), Pedro (72), Costa (84) SWANSEA CITY 1 Llorente (45)
CHELSEA stride relentlessly on towards the Premier League title. The lead is now 11 points. The challenge is: Catch us if you can.
It wasn’t quite as straightforward as it might have been because Fernando Llorente’s equaliser in first- half stoppage time briefly stopped the juggernaut, but in the end it was convincing enough.
Chelsea had been in front via an early goal from Cesc Fabregas. Their lead was restored by Pedro, exploiting an unfortunate error by Swansea keeper Lukasz Fabianski, and underscored by Diego Costa late on.
The 11 points is a false lead of course, with the two Manchester clubs and Arsenal out of action because of the EFL Cup Final and Spurs and Liverpool’s fixtures delayed until today and tomorrow.
But the points are on the board and Chelsea can sit back and watch who responds.
Antonio Conte insisted he hasn’t yet had to step in and remind his players about focus and concentration because most of his team have won the title before.
“It’s not easy to keep focused for the whole of the championship,” he said. “But I’m lucky to have a lot of players who have won it in the past and they know very well what we must do to stay at the top of the table.
“Of course if I see them relaxing, it’s right for me to help them, but honestly until now it’s not been necessary to do that.
“I have a team that deserves to be on top of the table. If we can win the title I don’t know, but we deserve to be there because we are playing good football with intensity and scoring a lot of goals.
“It was big frustration for us to be 1-1 at half-time. I told them that we were playing very well and we didn’t deserve to be 1-1, but I also said that we had to push on in the second half because we need to win.
“But it was good because when the tension starts to increase, it’s important to see the right answer from my players and I saw that.”
Conte’s team weren’t at their fluent best, but they’ve now won 15 of their 16 home matches under the Italian, including their last 12.
Swansea boss Paul Clement, who amazingly had collected a point more than Conte in 2017 before today, was assistant to Carlo Ancelotti when he won the League for the Blues.
He said: “They’re in a great position and it’s going to be difficult to catch them.
“I don’t believe they think it’s done and I’m sure the teams behind them don’t think it’s done either.
“They’re a very good side. They’re younger than the team I worked with when I was here and if they can keep them together for three or four years they’ll be formidable.”
Clement’s well- organised team managed to keep the leaders at bay for almost 20 minutes, but when Costa battled to free Eden Hazard, his pass found Pedro and his pullback was stabbed in by Fabregas.
He would have had a second with a volley from Victor Moses’ pass seven minutes later, but for Fabianski pulling off a superb save.
Swansea grabbed a shock equaliser in stoppage time with their first effort of the match.
Gylfi Sigurdsson clipped a freekick from the centre circle and the poorly- marked Llorente, a man Conte was looking to sign during the January window, got in a clean header to beat Thibault Courtois.
Fabianski made another excellent stop from Hazard early in the second half then Fabregas thumped a shot against the bar.
Swansea had a decent handball shout against Cesar Azpilicueta when Sigurdsson made a rare surge into the Chelsea box. Ref Neil Swarbrick reckoned the Chelsea man was too close to the Icelander to avoid the ball.
Clement said after wards: “I thought a penalty. I thought he got both hands on it, but apparently it only hit one.
“The ref had a good view, but there was no point asking him why he didn’t give it.”
But just when it seemed Chelsea were going to be frustrated by the white wall, Pedro picked up a pass from Fabregas and hit a left-footed shot that Fabianski should have comfortably dealt with.
However, the keeper got his hands all wrong and the ball went straight through him.
Costa sealed it for the leaders six minutes from time when he volleyed home a third.