Player Focus: Is Fabregas Back to His Best After a Year to Forget at Chelsea?

Just before half-time of Chelsea's latest win over Arsenal, the boos were increasing in volume, and the pressure seemed to be increasing on Guus Hiddink's side. Cesc Fabregas had the ball just in front of his own box, and was facing his own goal, with Joel Campbell rushing to press him.

It could have led to a lot of panic, and the type of misplaced pass that became so common with the Spanish midfielder over 2015. Except, none of it got to him.

By stark contrast, it brought out the best in him, as Hiddink predicted it might. It galvanised him. Far from letting the pressure get to him, Fabregas showed himself to be thinking ahead of everyone on the pitch. He actually played what seemed a dangerous touch towards his goal, but with the confidence of knowing full well that it would draw a foul and immediately get Chelsea out of danger.

It wasn't the only time in the game Fabregas looked a step above many others, not least one opposite number in Mesut Ozil. It wasn't the only time in 2016, brief as it is so far, that Fabregas looked like he's recovered some of his 2014 form.

The wonder, after so many debates over whether a confounding 2015 represented the beginning of his decline at just 28 years of age, is whether we're now going to see a resurgence; whether he'll be back to something close to his creative and action-packed best.

The decline from February 2015 to the end of the year was undeniably stark. Most glaringly, Fabregas went from 15 assists in the first six months of the 2014-15 season, to just five in the next 11 months of the calendar. Yet, the very first match of 2016 started to suggest he has been recovering that perception. Fabregas hit a glorious through ball for Diego Costa to set up Oscar, for Chelsea's first goal in the impressive 3-0 win away to Crystal Palace.

That didn't go down as an assist but it was as good as given the way the midfielder opened up the whole Palace half. That indicates Fabregas's upturn isn't just represented by stats, but the numbers still put forward a strong case.

From February to December 2015, the 28-year-old played an average of just 57 accurate passes a game. That has shot up to 77 in the last few weeks. Such accuracy was frequently seen in the win over Arsenal, but so was something else. When the game got properly gritty at the start of the second half, Fabregas was there throwing himself into tackles, not least with one brilliant challenge just in front of his own goal.

He seemed to be revelling it all, and acquiring a taste for it. Then again, that's in-keeping with the last few weeks too. Fabregas attempted an average of 2.2 tackles per game in that February-to-December spell. Over January, that figure has risen to 3.8 - a remarkable up-turn.

The question now is whether this is just temporary, or whether he can keep it up. He looks fresher and more vibrant again. Hiddink last week denied they'd had him on any special physical conditioning, but did say the way Chelsea have been training at Cobham may have helped - in a mental sense, too.

"We didn't say go to the weights and lift 100kg! The way we practice, and we have practiced the last weeks, I cannot make any judgement before but, the way we practiced, emphasising a lot of interchanging of rhythm, of pace of the game, in our exercise, made him also in my opinion physically sharp…he's feeling himself very, very good."

There's also a theory around Chelsea that the way the players are moving more freely in attack - in contrast to the constrained football of Jose Mourinho's latter days - has in turn freed Fabregas, giving him more options to in turn release his vision. In that sense, it's almost a combination of things. Either way, Fabregas is not just combining with his teammates much better now, he's leading by example.

Is Fabregas back to his best or is this just a purple patch from the Spaniard? Let us know in the comments below