Much was made of Cesar Azpilicueta’s performance in Chelsea’s 1-1 draw with Swansea and once again the question marks over whether he is the best defender in England did the rounds. Saturday’s stalemate at Anfield was his 74th successive Premier League start for the Blues - there would be no 75. Chelsea head coach Antonio Conte, in a bid to manage his squad accordingly ahead of the festive period, elected to rest the 28-year-old and with the games now coming thick and fast, it wasn’t a surprise.
Eden Hazard and Tiemoue Bakayoko also started the welcome of Swansea City from the bench and with matches every three days between now and the beginning of January, it wasn’t to big a shock to see Conte rotate. Despite being without their best defender, most potent attacker and one of their two big money summer midfield arrivals, Chelsea had enough about them to overcome this relegatation threatened Swansea side. However, they were made to be patient by the Swans, who held firm until the opening exchanges of the second half.
N’Golo Kante’s long range effort was deflected into the path of Antonio Rudiger by Wilfried Bony, with the German heading past Lukasz Fabianski from six yards. The Blues were good value for their lead too following a dominant opening 45 minutes, that saw them muster 11 shots to Swansea’s zero. The hosts ended the night with 21 shots to the away side’s two and a share of 61.1% possession. Despite their best efforts to throw the game away in the last 15 minutes, it was enough to secure all three points.
It was a required three points, too, particularly with Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal all securing maximum points in midweek. The manner of the victory also spoke volumes of Chelsea’s credentials to run title favourites Manchester City all the way. Wednesday’s meeting at Stamford Bridge was either going to see Chelsea run away with a comfortable three points or make them work hard for victory. Swansea are no strangers to sitting deep and remaining compact against opponents having done so effectively in the 0-0 draw with Tottenham at Wembley. Spurs were dominant, yet were frustrated in their quest for victory.
Chelsea, though, showed the spark of class to find a way past Fabianski and while the midweek win over Swansea won’t live long in the memory of supporters, they did just enough to earn the victory. For the Swans, though, defeat leaves them in trouble in the relegation zone. Everton’s win over West Ham leaves them with an uphill task to move away from danger. Their evening was summed up by the disappointing Renato Sanches, who passed the ball out for a throw in in the first half as he mistook a Carabao advert on the side of the pitch for a Swansea player.
Paul Clement did the right thing and hauled the Portuguese youngster off at half time for Leroy Fer and, to their credit, Swansea were more effective after the interval and could have drawn level late on had Wilfried Bony met Wayne Routledge’s cross. Yet defeat leaves them three points off safety and on a run of one win in their last 11 league matches. What’s more is the loss leaves Clement under incredible pressure to turn Swansea’s fortunes around. With Tony Pulis out of work at present, the Swans could well look to the former West Brom boss in a bid to stave off relegation.
