The Blues showed great determination to get the three points from yesterday’s clash against Southampton, as goals from Eden Hazard, Gary Cahill and Diego Costa (2) saw off the Saints in a thrilling six-goal exhibition at Stamford Bridge.
With their 4-2 victory Chelsea have now moved seven points clear at the top of the table, putting the pressure on second-placed Tottenham, who will be facing Crystal Palace tonight at Selhurst Park.
The victory itself was a great achievement, and we can all be happy with the three points – but we’ve listed a few things we learned from the match, and not every one of them are that positive.
1. Defence is still a big concern
When you’re scoring four goals in a game you might not be as concerned how many you concede as long as you win the game, but when you change to a bigger perspective, 11 games without a clean sheet is a poor, poor record for a champion-elect team.
You can see the drop of form in our defensive ranks when comparing our recent games to those matches’ reverse fixtures. On the first games against Crystal Palace and Southampton we kept clean-sheet without any issues, but we’ve now conceded four goals against these two sides in the second take-ons in total.
David Luiz, Gary Cahill and Cesar Azpilicueta are of course a great back three and Thibaut Courtois is no level below from them, so where’s the issue? Perhaps it’s the formation that’s finally getting exposed by more and more managers in the league. It’s Conte’s job to find out and fix.
2. Diego Costa lives with and for the goals
Diego Costa finally ended his five-game goal drought with a stunning performance scoring twice and assisting once in yesterday’s game.
Named as the Man of the Match, Costa seemed like the player we enjoyed watching to make the difference for the side earlier this season – before having his attitude ruined by the China speculation and whatnot.
His performance was a ten out of ten and it’s obvious that he enjoyed it as much as we did, because the two Chelsea players that have got the most criticism lately – Costa and Cahill – both scored in yesterday’s game to prove those haters wrong.
In the end we all rather hate on no one from our own team, pushing the whole squad for the glory!
3. There’s still more to come from JT
With the game pretty much set and matched, Antonio Conte brought on the one and only John Terry, who hasn’t made too big of a contribution to the side on the pitch this season.
He has, however, been an irreplaceable member of the team in the dressing room and training sessions, but now Conte gave a hint for us on how the Blues skipper is likely to play more once the season closes in.
The 36-year-old recently announced that he’s set to leave Stamford Bridge after two decades of world-class service in the Blues outfit, which obviously gave all Chelsea fans some proud and emotional goosebumps when he was subbed on for the final ten minutes of the game.
There’s no better way to give Terry his farewell than seal the title with pride and let him play the full ninety minutes in our final game of the season at the Bridge, only to raise the Premier League trophy after that.
