Fresh Football Fresh quotes, opinion and reaction to the beautiful game.
Chelsea managed to get past a resilient Swansea City side on Saturday with a 3-1 win. The Welsh side grew into the game after scoring an eqauliser against the run of play and at 1-1, the game could have gone either way. But Chelsea again found a way to win and move comfortably 11 points clear at the top of the league. Cesc Fabregas came in for Nemanja Matic and he proved to be the player that made all the difference on the day.
Fabregas has had to sit on the bench for much of the season but his performances in recent weeks will have done his chances no harm whatsoever. Alongside Kante, Fabregas has more creative freedom to roam and make the difference in possession – the duo compliment each other extremely well and we are certainly seeing a more confident and better Fabregas next to Kante rather than Matic.
Cesc was the heartbeat of the Chelsea team, with 127 touches during the game - crucially he picked up a goal and an assist. The Spaniard is a much more creative option than Matic and that was shown not only with his goal and assist but also with his 5 key passes.
He completed a huge 108 passes with a 86% success rate - that’s more passes than anyone else on the pitch. Despite playing in a central position, he attempted 7 crosses, and 8 long balls with 5 of them accurate. Fabregas was not afraid to shoot either, he had more shots (5) than any other Chelsea player, with two of them finding the target.
Here’s how the Chelsea fans reacted to his performance on Twitter.
Fabregas assist too, must start every game from now on!
— stephen treanor (@kingsteve18) February 25, 2017
Fabregas was phenomenal today. Late runs like lamps on his day
— Loftybhai (@Lofty133) February 26, 2017
Fabregas assist too, must start every game from now on!
— stephen treanor (@kingsteve18) February 25, 2017
Fabregas' performance was amazing last night.
— Carl Johnson (@Suave_Swazi) February 26, 2017
Fabregas was brilliant yesterday. Miss him at Arsenal!
— Tom Cheshire (@tomcheshire18) February 26, 2017
Fabregas must start again in the next game
— Lee (@Mslydia_rocks) February 25, 2017
In my opinion Fabregas should be in the first team regularly, I think he has been better than Matic this season, although Matic of course has his benefits for when the game is more physical or Chelsea may be required to do more defending.
It’s great that Antonio Conte has options outside his first eleven though, as injuries could start to kick in in the latter stages of the season. Conte will also be keen to win the FA Cup and next up is Manchester United in the quarter final – he’ll certainly need his squad players to contribute then.
