Leicester vs Chelsea: The One That Was Fab-Phwoar

True love

As a little something special for former manager and overall lovely man, Claudio Ranieri, it was really generous of Chelsea to absolutely gift his side a two goal lead on Tuesday night. It’s been tragically overlooked how benevolent Chelsea have made their approach to games these days. Of course there is always the chance that the defence is too s*dding casual.

Like his lengthy diatribe on BBC after the Swansea game, once again Gary Cahill atoned for what was, at least in part, his error. But this time in the form of a goal. And because of this I will reserve criticism of the Yorkshireman until he let’s Arsenal score something that never should have been on Saturday. He may or may not have actually meant the goal but no matter, it’s his and swung momentum in the right way just before halftime at the King Power.

Gary Cahill wasn’t the only defender looking to make amends for the part he played in allowing Shinji Okazaki to score twice — he’d failed to score in his previous THIRTEEN appearances. Cesar Azpilicueta casually scored one of the goals of the season. There is every chance it was a bit of a hit and hope, but I’ll take it. Fantastic volley to bring Chelsea back level with the champions.

Michy Batshuayi was unlucky not to score what could have been the winner in the 69th minute. He’d been tireless in attack but didn’t properly test Leicester until then. But Ron-Robert was more than up to the task and tipped Batman’s shot just over the bar. Batshuayi eventually made way to give Nathaniel Chalobah his first appearance for Chelsea - just the 12 years after being at the club.  It was a solid performance for the youngster.

Antonio Conte clearly didn’t want a late night and did the unthinkable - made a substitution at a reasonable time. Diego Costa charged onto the pitch like a raging bull exploding out of the blocks. Try as he might it just wasn’t to be for him in front of goal. That ball hit just about every part of the goal it could without actually going in. But that didn’t mean he didn’t play his part - quite literally with some of his theatrics. And just before the end of regular time, Costa took one for the team through Wasilewski’s forearm. 

And with that, Leicester were down to 10 men. No dissimilar to Chelsea who started with Victor Moses (and Pedro) etc and so on. Either way, the game headed to extra time. It’s lucky Chelsea don’t have that pesky Champions League to contend with so can handle an extra 30 minutes here and there.

Cesc Fàbregas. That is all.

Fàbregas has had a bit of a rough ride over the last 12 months. And not in the fun way. Early last season, completely unfounded accusations were flying around the stands that he was ‘the rat’ who was leaking back room stories and had turned on Jose Mourinho. When in fact he remained one of the few in the dressing room staunchly in support of Mourinho. Calls for him to be replaced by just about anyone were tiresome but continued throughout most of the season. Even when everyone’s fitness vastly improved and he was controlling games from start to finish after Christmas.

After working his little legs into getting the fans back onside, he’s found himself on the outside of Antonio Conte’s current plans, starting games from the bench. While he’s not the quickest, both his vision and ability on the ball should be more than enough to have him as one of the first names on the team sheet week in and week out. I thought changing the Watford game completely on its head in just 12 minutes would have been enough for Conte to find a more recurring role. It wasn’t.

I suspect he’ll be even more difficult to overlook after his performance on Tuesday. For him to get on the scoresheet not once, but twice was brilliant for all involved. Obviously it’s great for Chelsea to get through to the next round of the EDL rally League Cup and for the travelling support who made the trek to Leicester in the middle of the week. But mostly for Fàbregas. He works tirelessly to set up so many goals for other players, it’s nice that he got his moment to shine. The travelling fans voiced their support for the Spaniard throughout and he loved every second of it - running the length of the pitch to celebrate his second. It might have been the longest run of all time, but he got there in the end.

Often overlooked in Fàbregas’ performances is the organic relationship he has with both Diego Costa and Eden Hazard on the pitch. The three of them forming an attacking unit were the real undoing of Leicester - not the sending off. They play off of each other and seem to intuit one another’s movement. Not quite Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard, but well on the way. After the fractious time last season, Chelsea could do with a little natural chemistry on the pitch.

jb xx