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Goalscorer: Cesc Fabregas 3'
Antonio Conte's Chelsea edged out Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium yesterday to record a third successive away victory in the Premier League. The Blues were swiftly off their blocks when Cesc Fabregas pounced on an opportunity in the 3rd minute to register his 50th career goal since first arriving in England back in 2003.
The Spaniard scored the only goal of the game with a splendid finish after Eden Hazard caught the eye with his artistry in the build-up to the same. Despite finishing the game strongly, Carlos Carvalhal's men failed to restore any form of parity and the Swans are now without a win in their last six league games.
The result now means that Chelsea are just two points behind Tottenham Hotspur, who have a game in hand, while it looks like the scramble for relegation will go down to the wire for Swansea after Southampton's win over Bournemouth trimmed the gap between the two sides to just a single point.
Without further delay, let's take a closer look at the major talking points from the game:
#1 Chelsea do just enough to get over the line
The performance from Chelsea on the night was uncharacteristic and certainly far from their best but the Blues managed to hold on to their slender lead and did enough to get over the line, in the end. A tactical shift coupled with some inspired substitutions from Carvalhal helped Swansea to attack with urgency and more conviction in the final 20 minutes of the game.
Chelsea faced some level of discomfort due to Swansea's late push for a point and the match produced even more drama when Nathan Dyer tumbled to the ground inside Chelsea's penalty area on the wake of a robust challenge from Gary Cahill. Referee Jon Moss waved play on as he felt that Cahill got the ball cleanly but Carvalhal thought otherwise.
There is still some hope for Chelsea in terms of qualifying for the Champions League next year with three league games to go before their FA Cup final against Manchester United at Wembley on the 19th of May.
#2 The scramble for survival is heating up
Carlos Carvalhal had a daunting task at hand when he was appointed as manager of Swansea City. The Welsh club were down at the bottom and it almost seemed like they were destined to bid goodbye to Premier League football. However, a remarkable turnaround under the new manager helped them claw their way back into the race for survival.
Swansea were slowly steering clear of the pack at the bottom but a run that has seen them not win a single game in their last six attempts in the league is proving to be a stumbling block for the club, who are now just a single point away from the relegation zone.
With three fixtures remaining before the curtains come down on a pulsating season, their fate is still pretty much in their hands. Swansea will face Southampton and Stoke City, both teams who are also fighting to stay up in the Premier League, after their trip to face Bournemouth next week.
#3 Gary Cahill makes late bid for World Cup ticket
It's harsh how someone like Cahill, who has won almost everything at club level with Chelsea, is being overlooked by the Three Lions ahead of their preparation for the World Cup in the summer. That's not entirely Gareth Southgate's fault though, simply because of the fact that the Chelsea skipper has struggled this season after being dropped sporadically from time to time.
After making his fifth consecutive start in a row since he was restored to the line-up, Cahill looked very assured at the back and showcased his prowess in the air as well. The Englishman was deployed at the heart of a three-man defence on the night and stepped up when it mattered the most with that sublime tackle on Nathan Dyer in the second half.
Gareth Southgate has plenty of options to explore before the World Cup and England have a lot of centre-halves to choose from including Harry Maguire, John Stones, James Tarkowski and Alfie Mawson. However, if Cahill continues to perform consistently starting from now to the end of the season then it will be hard to leave him behind in the summer.
#4 Emerson Palmieri can be the perfect fit at Chelsea
Chelsea never really managed to find an ideal replacement for Ashley Cole ever since his departure from the club and their efforts have cost them around £100 million with the likes of Filipe Luis and Baba Rahman joining the club and falling out of favour real quick.
The Blues were on the look-out for an ideal deputy to Marcos Alonso in January and managed to rope in Emerson Palmieri from AS Roma. However, very little was know about the full-back who was also recovering from an ACL problem that had forced him to watch on from the sidelines for a long time.
Alonso is still serving a three-match suspension for a stamp on Shane Long and Emerson has slotted in almost perfectly for Chelsea at left-back. He is an entirely different entity while compared to Alonso and looked the part against Swansea making some smart overlapping runs to go with his neat passes out of the back.
#5 Chelsea fighting a losing battle with Bakayoko?
Life in England has surely gone haywire for Tiemoue Bakayoko who joined Chelsea from Monaco in a £40 million deal last summer. The idea of spending so much on a youngster, who is relatively new to the whole scenario of playing in England was questioned but the departure of Nemanja Matic maybe forced Chelsea to act quickly.
It was believed that Bakayoko would become the ideal fit at Chelsea alongside his countryman N'Golo Kante but it seems like the Blues have made a mistake after all. Despite being one of Chelsea's worst performers this year, Bakayoko has already made around 40 appearances for the club and except in their 2-1 win over Tottenham at Wembley, he has looked comical all throughout.
The performance against Swansea was the latest episode in the saga but the story turned out to be the same and Bakayoko gave the ball away twice early on, misplaced several passes and looked off the pace on most occasions with his positioning being absolutely dreadful.
