Sunderland 0 Chelsea 1: Fabregas fires Blues to tenth Premier League win in a row

CESC FABREGAS gave Antonio Conte a reminder of his special qualities with his first league goal of the season last night.

By Ian Murtagh

Chelsea star Cesc Fabregas celebrates his goal against Sunderland

The Spaniard has spent recent weeks warming the bench as his team-mates have reeled off win after win.

Last night he decided it was time to join the party.

Sunderland had proved stubborn opponents, just as Conte predicted, and the Black Cats were five minutes away from going in at half-time level when Fabregas stamped his class on proceedings.

Taking a Pedro ball in his stride, he skipped past Jan Kirchoff and after swapping passes with Willian, stroked a sublime right-foot shot between Jordan Pickford's outstretched hands and left-hand post.

The Premier League's bottom club should have equalised two minutes after the restart when Jermain Defoe fed the overlapping Adnan Januzaj inside the box but the Manchester United loanee's shot was turned behind by Thibaut Courtois.

Moments later, a Willian drive clipped the bar after taking a heavy deflection off former Chelsea defender Papy Djilobodji before Victor Moses tested Pickford.

David Moyes' side had matched Chelsea's 3-4-3 formation but whereas the visitors' wing-backs spent the first period marauding down the flanks, their Black Cats counterparts concentrated on defence.

If the Sunderland gameplan was cautious, it looked effective until Fabregas struck.

While they were prepared to concede territory and possession to the league leaders, Chelsea struggled to get behind them.

And Pickford produced a blinding save to deny Pedro, even though the linesman's flag was already raised with the Spaniard just offside.

Antonio Conte's Chelsea have extended their lead at the top of the table

Chelsea's first shot on target did not arrive until the 39th minute but David Luiz's 30-yard free-kick brought a regulation save out of Pickford.

Within a minute, though, Conte's men were ahead, thanks to Fabregas' gem.

They were within a whisker of doubling their lead in first-half injury-time when John O'Shea fouled Diego Costa and Willian's free-kick brushed the roof of the net.

Despite being pushed back for long periods, Sunderland did carve out two half-chances of their own.

Defoe released Billy Jones whose cross-shot was just wide, while Januzaj couldn't get enough curl on his 25th-minute effort.

Thibaut Courtois made a stunning late save

Sunderland opened up after the break although Chelsea had the better chances with Willian again going close.

But it took a stunning injury-time save by Courtois to keep Chelsea's winning run going, diving to his right to push away a piledriver from Patrick van Aanholt.

SUNDERLAND (3-4-3): Pickford; Kone, O'Shea, Djilobodji; Jones, Denayer, Van Aanholt, Kirchhoff; Borini, Januzaj, Defoe. Subs: Mannone, Larsson, Khazri, Love, Asoro, Maja, Honeyman.

CHELSEA (3-4-3): Courtois; Azpilicueta, Luiz, Cahill; Moses, Kante, Fabregas, Alonso; Willian, Costa, Pedro. Subs: Begovic, Ivanovic, Zouma, Matic, Loftus-Cheek, Batshuayi, Chalobah.

Referee: Neil Swarbrick.

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