If Antonio Conte had been offered 10 points from his opening four Premier League games, he’d probably taken it and run, yet we find ourselves ruing our failure to make it 12 out of 12. Naturally, among this frustration fans search for the chinks in the armour, in this case, though, it’s not any players’ inclusion in the starting eleven that many feel is holding us back – rather one man’s omission. In this case that man is Cesc Fabregas, with fans suggesting that our team is dearly missing his creative spark.
When Fabregas signed for Chelsea in the summer of 2014, there were question marks as to whether he’d ever be one of ours, or whether he’d always be a former Arsenal captain. We had our answer as soon as he took to the field, as we fell in love with his ingenious link-up with Diego Costa – it was as though those two were born to play together.
It seems, though, ever since he had his hands on that Premier League trophy that had evaded him throughout his 8 years in North London, his stock has drastically fallen in the west of the city. After a sub-par 2015/16 campaign, Fabregas is no longer untouchable. In the midst of the shortfalls of last season, some began to question his commitment with others suggesting he was simply past his best.
Unfortunately for him, that uncertainty has only worsened since Conte’s arrival at the club. Fabregas is not what you would call an archetypal Antonio Conte player, largely due to his lack of dynamism or engine that is incomparable to his midfield counterparts at the club. He doesn’t appear to feature in the Italian’s plans for the immediate future – but perhaps he should.
If you watched our 2-2 draw with Swansea last weekend, I imagine you were as frustrated as I am that we didn’t take maximum points. The reality is, regardless of our calamitous defending, we should have been out of sight long before Sigurdsson equalised on the hour mark. Diego Costa is unplayable at the moment and is scoring for fun, Eden Hazard is fit and firing again, the excuses are limited – so why didn’t we kill the game? The easy answer is to point to a lack of creativity, and a lack of Cesc Fabregas.
Here is Chelsea’s shot map vs Swansea, courtesy of the brilliant WhoScored. 28 shots in total, 18 of which were taken from inside the penalty box, but only 7 were on target. The quality of the areas in which the shots were taken looks good at first glance, but along with our wayward finishing, 9 of those 28 efforts were blocked by an opposing defender before they reached the goal. The difficulty when interpreting a shot map is that you have to consider that the area in which the shot was taken does not necessarily give you the full picture as to how good an opportunity it was.
Whether it be Francesco Guidolin’s plan set his team up to contain and counter, or his side’s defensive line simply fell deeper as Chelsea’s dominance grew, we often found ourselves in possession with 10 Swansea players behind the ball. Breaking down a low defensive block takes the creative mind of a Cesc Fabregas, I do not feel as though Oscar nor Nemanja Matic are equipped to play the killer, defence-splitting pass.
Fabregas has created 164 chances since his his return to the Premier League in 2014, our current midfield pairing of Nemanja Matic and Oscar have created 122 combined in the same period.
Most clear-cut chances created in the last 2 PL seasons:
Özil (35)
Mahrez (31)
Fàbregas (29)
Sánchez (26)
Tadic (23)— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) August 9, 2016
A good way of gauging just how good a chance is, is by looking at clear-cut chance statistics. The quality of a clear-cut chance is reflected in these five players’ assist stats over the same period (also consider that Ozil & Sanchez have to play with Olivier Giroud): Ozil (24), Mahrez (14), Fabregas (25), Sanchez (12), Tadic (19).
Fabregas has created 29 clear-cut chances over the past 2 Premier League seasons, only Mahrez and Ozil have more. He’s also provided 25 assists in that period, more than any over player. On a creative level, he blows most out of the water, but there never has been question marks over those aspects of his game – it’s his frailties while not in possession for which he is often criticised.
Who does he replace?
Below is a graph that further depicts just how good our midfield maestro can be in a creative sense, but also highlights his off-the-ball inadequacies. Fabregas made 0.87 interceptions per 90 minutes in the 2014/15 season, it pales in comparison with Nemanja Matic’s 2.10. He was also dribbled past 2.24 times per 90 minutes, a figure that supports the notion that he is a liability in our midfield.
https://twitter.com/FussballRadars/status/734423232577732608
Even then there were suggestions that he left us exposed in the midfield areas, with Mourinho experimenting with him as a no.10 with Matic and Mikel holding, often against the bigger sides.
While on form and playing a key role in a title-winning side, he was good enough to justify the faults within his game, and if he is to force his way into Conte’s plans he will have to reach the same level.
His assist for Diego Costa’s goal against Watford in gameweek two is the standard that he has set for himself and the standard that we now expect. I don’t believe there is another player in the Premier League who can play that pass, and in games like our draw with Swansea at the weekend, that’s the quality that we will need to break them down.
Under Mourinho and Hiddink, Fabregas was used in a double-pivot alongside Nemanja Matic. Although this gave him the opportunity to face the play and dictate from deep, it also put him right in the firing line. With the signing of N’Golo Kante, our midfield looks far more accommodating, the Frenchman has been trusted to hold the midfield almost single-handedly – and he has risen to the challenge. Fabregas would also be sharing the workload with a third midfielder, such is the benefit of Conte’s newly implemented 4-1-4-1 formation.
In this setup we could see the best of Cesc Fabregas, if he is given the creativity to provide for the attackers while not being a burden to the side defensively – it could be devastating.
