HomeTeams - PLChelseaFabregas Sets a Record as Chelsea Cruise Past West Brom

Fabregas Sets a Record as Chelsea Cruise Past West Brom

Chelsea produced one of the best performances of the season so far and wrapped up the match after 25 minutes, with Cecs Fabregas claiming a season record to his name.

The Blues’ superb display at Stamford Bridge left all their title challengers with little doubt over who is the hottest favourite for topping the league. The league leaders will be disappointed with only one thing, not scoring more goals courtesy of Ben Foster heroics.

Fabregas Record

There were no signs of international hangover from any Chelsea players on Saturday afternoon, especially after two of their biggest assets, Costa and FabregaGame statss, got some much needed rest from Spain manager Vicente del Bosque ahead of the busy Christmas period to come. The Blues dominated West Brom from minute one and there was never really much doubt over the winner of this outing. Credit goes to West Brom and particularly the excellent Ben Foster for keeping the hosts to two goals.

Chelsea started the game with their foot on the gas and it soon became obvious it would be a matter of time until the players in blue would find a breakthrough. After only five minutes, the first signs appeared of this match transforming into a Chelsea vs. Foster battle.

Fabregas and Hazard worked a short signal from a corner with the ball being served to Terry at the edge of the 6 yard box only for the skipper to be denied by a fantastic reflex save from Foster. It did not take long for the first goal to arrive with Oscar exchanging passes with Azpilicueta down the left flank, firing an inch-perfect cross for Costa who controlled the ball superbly with his chest and left Foster with no chance slotting home after 10 minutes. Questions were raised whether Costa was offside but replays show the advancing Chris Baird just about played him onside. This was the Spaniards 11th goal in 10 games.

Minutes later, Hazard crept into the box from the left, evading two defenders only to see his shot deflected off Dawson for a corner. Costa could have made it two for Chelsea and for himself moments later after connecting with the low cross of Ivanovic from the right flank, only for the ball to roll a few inches past the post. Chelsea got their second after 24 minutes from another corner when Fabregas found Hazard who was left inexplicably alone in the box and made no mistake beating Foster and Gardner at the front post. This was Fabregas’ 10th assist in 12 league games.

Four minutes later, Claudio Yacob jumped into the feet of Diego Costa with both feet off the ground and despite winning the ball with his first touch (and chopped Costa down with his second), the rules are clear and referee Lee Mason was left with little choice but to show the midfielder a straight red card. From this moment, West Brom were faced with a daunting task of facing Chelsea with 10 men for the remaining hour of the game, and any hope of a surprise comeback were gone. But with a lot of help from Foster, they managed to keep Chelsea at bay, with the Blues failing to capitalise on all further opportunities, despite playing Ivanovic and Azpilicueta almost as wingers for the remainders of the game.

Oscars’ shot and the following rebound by Costa were both denied by Foster and Matic should have scored his first goal at Stamford Bridge after the restart as another wonderful cross by Oscar found the Serb alone at the far post on the volley, but the big midfielder put a little too much force behind the ball. Terry was denied with a super-reflex save by Foster again after 49 minutes but the Blues defender committed a foul anyway. The Baggies resigned any attempts in attack and focused on creating an impenetrable double wall of red shirts. With 20 minutes left, Fabregas’ pass cut through the West Brom defence and found the run of Hazard in the box only for the Belgian to be denied by Foster again. With the remainder of the match a formality, Chelsea claimed the three points and are now seven points clear of second place Southampton.

Chelsea utterly dominated the game with three quarters of the game in possession. They successfully completed a staggering 678 passes, with 307 of them coming in the attacking third of the pitch. This lead to 15 corners throughout the game compared to the Baggies’ zero, and eventually lead to 21 shots by the Blues players, 8 of which found the target.

Cecs Fabregas
A season record was set today by Cecs Fabregas who completed an astonishing 144 passes out of 153 attempted over the course of 90 minutes. This shows the importance of the Spaniard’s presence in the Blues’ midfield, as Chelsea rely on him to keep the ball moving in the centre of the park and use his vision and intelligence to find team mates in dangerous positions, as he did today 5 times.

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