Chelsea went into business from the very blast of the whistle, restricting Sunderland to their own half of the field for the first 20 minutes of the game at Stadium of Light.
Cesc Fabregas scored for Chelsea after 39 minutes in a scintillating team play started with a header from the midfield by N’golo Kante. Pedro collected Kante’s header and laid it for Febregas who nudged it on for Willian. Willian then squared a return pass to Fabregas before the Spanish international fired a low shot to the bottom left corner of the post beyond the despairing hands of the Sunderland goal tender Jordan Pickford.
Chelsea controlled the remaining minutes of the first half, going into the half-time break on a high.
On resumption of play in the second half, the Stamford Bridge lads continued prodding for a second goal to no avail. Fabregas continued to spread the ball from the midfield , making Chelsea not to feel the absence of Eden Hazard. In effect, Fabregas would have capped up an impressive performance with a second goal but his weak shot with the left foot from inside the box went wide with the Sunderland goalkeeper badly placed. But Sunderland would have scored through Januzaj whose shot was parried by Thibaut Courtois in goal for Chelsea less than 2 minutes into the second half. Chelsea almost paid for failing to find a second goal as Patrick van Aanholt fired an injury time left footed strike that Courtois parried brilliantly for a corner kick.
Antonio Conte’s charges have now gone on a 10-matche winning streak. They keep hold of the Premier league table with 40 points, with their closest rival Liverpool 6 points behind. The blues would be fired up to meet on Saturday, Crystal Palace who lost 2 – 1 to Manchester United tonight.
In other Premier League matches played across England tonight, Watford lost 2 – 0 to Manchester City; ten-man Stoke City played a 0 – 0 draw with Southampton; Tottenham Hotspurs beat Hull City 3 – 0; Liverpool spanked Middlesbrough 3 – 0; and Westham United outclassed Burnley 1 – 0. Also tonight, West Bromwich Albion humbled Swansea 3 – 0, with Solomon Rondon scoring a hat-trick.
Sunderland remain bottom of the league on 11 points, while Manchester United remained on 6th , with 27 points and Manchester City also retained 4th position with 33 points, but Liverpool moved past Arsenal (who lost 2 – 1 to Everton yesterday) to second on the table.
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