Chelsea’s world-class team performance earned the team a very comfortable three points which has taken Antonio Conte’s men all the way up to a 12-point margin to Arsenal on the third position, just a point behind Tottenham.
An Alonso header, solo goal from Hazard and a lovely Fabregas chip led Chelsea to a well-deserved 3-1 victory regardless of Olivier Giroud’s injury time consolation goal.
We’ve rated each Chelsea player of the day, with Eden Hazard deservedly the Man of the Match. See the full grades down below…
Starting Eleven:
Thibaut Courtois – 9 – Was close to a huge mistake inside the first minute of the game, but got well back into the game despite that incident. A top, top save to deny Gabriel’s close-range header and Özil’s low-driven shot were just a beginning for the Blues keeper, who on the second half stretched himself to a sublime save to deny Welbeck’s accurate header. Great game from him, shame he only got a touch to Giroud’s injury time header.
Cesar Azpilicueta – 9 – Wonderful performance yet again from the Spaniard. Always consistent, always proving class act in the Blues defence.
David Luiz – 8 – Seems like he’s still yet to cover from his knee injury should we look at the bandage still rolled up to his knee. Played a wonderful game though, great way to resume his run.
Gary Cahill – 8 – Went close with a header from Pedro’s corner inside the first minutes of the game, and was otherwise a great servant in the three-man defence. Great game overall.
Victor Moses – 7 – Strong runs up and down the field on the right, providing good passes and defensive support. Key battle between him and Nacho Monreal.
N’Golo Kante – 9 – Picked up right where he left off against Liverpool! Another astounding performance from the Frenchman, who was all over the pitch with his superb trackbacks and tackles. Özil and the rest had nowhere to go in midfield as the speedy centre-mid was simply everywhere.
Nemanja Matic – 8 – Keeps proving why he also is very much capable of what Fabregas is capable of. He successfully snapped plenty of long balls forward which were often gathered by onward running Costa or Pedro. Great game defensively as well from the Serbian.
Marcos Alonso – 9 – It was one of his days again! His fourth goal of the season in the league, and it couldn’t have come against a better opposition. Sure, he accidentally made Bellerin unconscious for a moment, but hey, that’s football. He was also very often found wide from the left and provided some dangerous crosses into the Gunners area. Good defensively as well.
Pedro – 8 – Confident controlling of the ball with some fabulous dribbles and passes. Work-rate was on point just as well, since he did magnificent job chasing down the Gunners players throughout the game. Was subbed off after 84 minutes.
Diego Costa – 7 – Strong game from the Spaniard, but was maybe a bit too selfish in a few great goalscoring opportunities. Of course, on the paper he did well, assisting the first and the second goal, but in some counter attacks he rather went on by himself to lose the ball for the first man in the way, even though he could’ve played a simple pass for one of his teammates on the counter. Of course, it’s not such a big thing now since the win was comfortable and the job was overall done very well by him, as well.
Eden Hazard – 9 MOTM – His amazing, world-class solo goal stole the show tonight. Chelsea’s 2-0 goal was made all by himself, as the flying winger collected the ball in midfield, shrugging off Coquelin from his back before gliding past Koscielny and slotting a neat finish into the back of the net. Alongside that goal the frontman completed a solid amount of successful dribbles and passes, and truly earned his man of the match award.
Subs:
Willian – 6 – Didn’t have much time to express himself today, but could’ve got to the scoresheet as well should Costa have passed the ball for him in front of the empty net instead of blasting the ball over the goal himself. More to come from the Brazilian though.
Cesc Fabregas – 7 – It was first quite sad to see Fabregas on the bench from the start, as he was set to miss the game against his ex-club, but luckily Conte released him for the last ten minutes of the game, to chip in Chelsea’s third from Cech wayward clearance. Respect for not celebrating the goal – could’ve been too much to handle for the Gunners fans.
Kurt Zouma – 6 – Nice to see the young Frenchman also get his first Chelsea appearance of the campaign. Sure he only played a few minutes – in which he already had time to dummy his way past Monreal – but he was probably brought on because of Conte’s plan to get each player a medal should we win the title this season! I’m confident he’ll be on the starting sheet as well once the opportunity arrives.
