CHELSEA FIND JOY OF CESC
Sunderland 0 Chelsea 1
CESC FABREGAS made it 10 wins in a row as Chelsea took their lead to six points.
The Spaniard broke Sunderland’s spirited resistance after 40 minutes.
It left Antonio Conte’s men piling the pressure on rivals Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City.
Chelsea kept their 10th clean sheet of the season to leavet Sunderland at the opposite end of the table and needing to revive over Christmas to stand a chance of beating the drop.
A PERFECT 10 for Chelsea – but rock-bottom Sunderland slipped to their 11th defeat of the season.
Cesc Fabregas extended the west Londoners’ remarkable winning run to double figures and their lead at the top to six points.
Four more victories and Antonio Conte’s men will equal Arsenal’s Premier League record winning streak.
This was not the perfect display. But they got the job done against a determined home side intent on containment.
A 10th clean sheet of the campaign was also racked up – a milestone that took the whole of last season to achieve.
Sunderland are in their annual fight for survival, but this could be the year they finally drop.
Funds to refresh the squad are “very limited” and the club is up for sale as owner Ellis Short looks to cut his losses. Boss David Moyes has his players fighting, but unpicking the mistakes of recent years will take time.
The Black Cats have the league’s worst home record of only seven points from eight games.
Fabregas got his first goal of the season just as the encounter was degenerating into stalemate.
Neither side had managed a shot on target for 39 minutes when a David Luiz free kick tested Jordan Pickford via a deflection. A minute later Chelsea were ahead. Pedro wriggled in field from the left, beating two defenders, after N’Golo Kante won a midfield header.
He slipped a pass to Fabregas, abregas, who rode a tackle from Jan Kirchhoff and foundd Willian on the edge of the box.
He had space, but unselfishly pinged straight back to the Spain star, who struck a well-controlled curler past ast Pickford.
What a difference a year makes. Exactly a year ago Chelsea had just lost to Leicester and three days later Jose Mourinho was sacked.
They look transformed under Conte (above). This could have been a tough game against a side intent on defence, but they moved smoothly through the gears. Moyes pondered how to cope with Chelsea’s 3- 4- 3 formation and decided to match it. He played three centre backs in search of only his side’s second clean sheet in 17 league games, but they could not quite hol hold out. Su Sunderland had five m men in defen ce , p protected by Kirchhoff a and Jason Denayer, w who can both play c centre-back, as holding m midfielders. A pattern emerged of Che Chelsea possession, Sd Sunderlandl stopping an attack through force of numbers, hoofing clear then repeat. Adnan Januzaj almost levelled just after half-time, but Thibaut Courtois’ reflex save tipped the ball wide. Willian hit the bar as the visitors pushed for a second. But Chelsea needed a worldclass injury-time save by Courtois from Patrick van Aanholt’s volley to seal victory.