Chelsea’s capture of Cesc Fabregas from Barcelona for a fee of £27 million, per BBC Sport, is proving to be one of the summer’s best transfers.
The Spanish midfielder has notched up two goals and 11 assists in 15 appearances so far and—despite carrying an injury—is showing no signs of slowing down soon.
The ease with which Fabregas has settled back into the pace of the Premier League after three years at Barcelona has been surprising. He is currently on course for a career-best season and has all but secured his place in the starting XI of a very competitive squad.
One factor in Fabregas’ blistering start is the partnership he has struck up with Nemanja Matic in the middle of the pitch.
The Serbian was one of the Blues’ best players in the second half of last season and has carried that form into 2014-15. He provides the anchor to Fabregas’ creativity, breaking up play before turning possession over to his partner.
Between them, Fabregas and Matic have completed 140 passes per game in the Premier League this season. They are first and second respectively in the number of long balls played by the Blues' outfield players, and third and fourth in terms of passing accuracy.
The dynamic nature of their partnership has made them almost unplayable and can only get stronger as the season progresses.
However, it is not just Matic that Fabregas has linked up well with.
The playmaker has provided four of Diego Costa’s 10 league goals so far, leading Jose Mourinho to describe him as “a dream” to play in front of, per ESPN.
His vision to pick the perfect pass to create a goalscoring opportunity has been praised by all quarters, most notably his former manager Arsene Wenger. Back in April, Wenger wrote in his Yahoo! Eurosport column:
The greatest strength of Fabregas is his vision. He sees. The players who see are the ones making your team win and he sees before the others. It’s a telescopic head on a football field. I think it would be interesting to film his head during a match once. He is always looking around him to see what’s going on. When he gets the ball, he has already seen everything that was going on around.
He has a geographical map of the field in his head, from the first to the last minute of the match. And he is a killer, because he always makes a killing pass.
Such high praise is confusing considering Wenger’s decision to turn down his buy-back option on the player, but Mourinho was quick to realise that his old adversary’s loss would be a big gain for him.
The Special One apparently convinced Fabregas to join the Blues after a 10-minute conversation. Having skipped a trip to watch his son play in a tournament in Germany in order to take part in the negotiations, Mourinho quickly identified the issues that had led Fabregas to seek a move away from Barcelona and addressed his concerns.
Per Jason Burt at The Telegraph , he said:
I gave him the different possibilities – with me you will play here, not there. This is the way we want to play, this is the way we are going to develop the team. No way with me are you going to play ‘fake No 9’, outside-left, outside-right. What I need is this, this and this.
Having a clearly defined role in the side has been the biggest factor in shaping Fabregas’ success so far this season. Although he is still expected to be flexible enough to play as a deep-lying playmaker or No. 10 depending on the circumstances, the uncertainty over his role that coloured his time at Barcelona has been dispersed by Mourinho’s managerial masterplan.
At 27 years old, Fabregas is in the prime of his career. Having been given the chance to fulfil a clearly defined role in a Premier League side that is more than capable of challenging for the title, his professionalism will ensure that he continues to play at his very best over the course of the season.
Statistics via WhoScored.com
from Bleacher Report http://ift.tt/1uwEEKJ
via IFTTT November 15, 2014 at 04:03AM
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