Chelsea pull away from Liverpool and Arsenal

Fabregas' only goal helped coach Conte's team defeat host Sunderland, further solidifying their position at the top of the Premier League.

Goal: Fabregas 40'.

Sunderland prepared very carefully to welcome the top team. Coach David Moyes personally went to London to watch Chelsea's most recent match - a 1-0 win over West Brom on December 11. Moyes's achievements that day were somewhat effective at the Stadium of Light yesterday, December 14, when Sunderland played their best match since the start of the Premier League this season. The "Black Cats" defended tenaciously, seizing counter-attack opportunities, causing Chelsea to sweat profusely at times.

Fabregas shines at the right time to help Chelsea extend winning streak. Photo: Reuters.

However, the team nicknamed "Black Cats" still could not get any points against a much stronger opponent. Fabregas's beautiful curling shot in the 40th minute helped Chelsea win 1-0, extending their winning streak in the Premier League to 10 matches. Thanks to this result, plus Arsenal's stumble at Everton in the early match the day before, Conte's team further consolidated their top position, with six points more than Arsenal and Liverpool, who are both on 34 points.

The 1-0 result in favor of Chelsea did not really reflect the whole situation at the Stadium of Light, where the visitors completely dominated. They kept the ball for 66% of the time, had more than twice as many shots (19 compared to 8), and had twice as many shots on target (6 compared to 3) as Sunderland. If not for the home goalkeeper Jordan Pickford's excellent saves from Marcos Alonso and Willian, Chelsea would have won by a bigger margin.

One of the keys to Chelsea's impressive recent winning streak has been consistency, with Conte keeping the same starting line-up in eight of the nine games before the Sunderland clash. Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp recently said that Chelsea would collapse if Eden Hazard or Diego Costa - two pillars who have played consistently in recent times - were injured. And the away match at the Stadium of Light therefore became an opportunity to test Klopp's assessment, as well as that of many other experts.

Chelsea struggled for most of the game due to Hazard's lack of creativity. Photo: Reuters.

Hazard missed out on the Sunderland trip after picking up an injury in the win over West Brom. Willian was brought in to replace the Belgian, while in midfield, Matic was rested and Fabregas returned to the starting line-up after starting on the bench in the last game.

Chelsea initially struggled for Hazard's creativity. For much of the first half, they struggled to find a way to break down Sunderland's deep-lying seven-man defence. But when it looked like they were at their worst, the visitors showed their strength in depth with a moment of brilliance from Fabregas. Against a wall of defence, the Spaniard somehow found space to curl a stunning shot into the far bottom corner, past Pickford in the 40th minute.

Sunderland desperately needed all three points to escape the bottom of the table. But against the team in the best form in the league, that became an impossible task. They only succeeded in neutralizing Diego Costa - Chelsea's most dangerous striker, and reducing the loss to a minimum level, but did not create enough situations to score goals against Chelsea.

Sunderland succeeded in neutralizing Diego Costa, but prevented Chelsea from winning. Photo: Reuters.

It was only late in the game that Sunderland had a real chance, with Patrick van Aanholt's dangerous left-footed shot in the third minute of stoppage time. But Thibaut Courtois produced a superb reflex save to keep Chelsea's clean sheet, maintaining the 1-0 lead until full-time.

Line-up:

Sunderland(5-3-1-1): Pickford; Jones (Love 59,), Kone, Djilobodji, O'Shea, Van Aanholt; Januzaj, Denayer, Kirchhoff (Larsson 57); Borini (Khazri 82); Defoe

Unused Subs: Mannone, Asoro, Maja, Honeyman

Yellow cards: Defoe, O'Shea

Chelsea(3-4-3): Courtois; Azpilicueta, Luiz, Cahill; Moses (Ivanovic 90), Kante, Fabregas, Alonso; Willian, Costa, Pedro (Matic 75)

Unused subs: Begovic, Zouma, Loftus-Cheek, Batshuayi, Chalobah

Goal: Fabregas 40

Yellow cards: Pedro, Moses

Referee: Swarbrick

According to VNE