William Scores Brace As Chelsea Bruise Stoke City

Chelsea equalled Arsenal's record for the most consecutive Premier League wins in a season with a thrilling 4-2 victory against Stoke on New Year's Eve.

The Blues now have 13 games in a row - the same as the Gunners side from the 2001/02 campaign - and took the lead just after 30 minutes thanks to Gary Cahill's header. 

But Martins Indi scored the fastest second-half goal of the season just 54 seconds after the restart to get Stoke level, before Willian scored his first of two goals ten minutes later to put the Blues back ahead. 

Diego Costa - returning to the side after a suspension on Boxing Day - had the final word with five minutes of normal time to play to round off the victory and send Chelsea nine points clear.

The first-half was a slow burner, with a shot from N'Golo Kante - also back in the side after his one-game ban - in the seventh minute being the pick of the action from the opening exchanges.

Lee Grant was then called into action twice in quick succession to deny Chelsea. The first came in the 19th minute as Costa rounded Mame Biram Diouf on the left of the box, but his shot was kept out by the diving chest of the goalkeeper before he collected the rebound after it came off the back of Martins Indi.

He was in action again three minutes later to palm away a Cahill header before Charlie Adam saw his own headed effort skim wide from a Xherdan Shaqiri corner in the best chance of the half for Stoke.

Grant produced another heroic save in the 33rd minute to deny Costa once again. David Luiz played a sublime ball down the field that picked out the striker, who turned Ryan Shawcross before shooting, but the Stoke stopper was off his line to block the effort. He then recovered well to palm away the rebound from Eden Hazard.

But Grant could do nothing about the resulting corner, as Cahill rose above the Stoke defence in the box to power home from a Cesc Fabregas corner to put the hosts in front heading into the break.

It was a goal-laden second half and Stoke equalised with their first shot on target within a minute of the restart. Adam fired a delightful free kick into the box that found the head of Crouch at the back post, that the striker nodded into the path of Martins Indi who steered the ball home.

Chelsea were in front again ten minutes later, though, in what was a fine team goal. Victor Moses got away from Erik Pieters on the right of the box before his low cross found Hazard in the middle. The Belgian took one touch to put the ball into the path of Willian who curled home a delightful effort through four Stoke players.

Stoke switched off momentarily and allowed Chelsea to again go ahead a minute later. A loose pass from the visitors set off Fabregas towards the box, who slipped in Willian on the right and he took a few steps before hitting home from a tight angle to beat Grant. 

Both sides had chances to get the next goal as the game headed towards a thrilling conclusion, with a gut-busting break from Willian, Hazard and Costa seeing the striker power a shot over the bar before a sublime Glen Johnson cross was poked wide by Azpilicueta who was ahead of a waiting Crouch. 

Costa had the final say of the game though, coming with five minutes of normal time to play. A throw-in from Marcos Alonso was headed into the box by Adam, arriving at the feet of the Chelsea striker who beat both Shawcross and Martins Indi before nestling the ball into the back of the net.

Final score stood at Chelsea 4 Stoke 2.

Pedro Scores Brace as Chelsea Make it Twelve Wins

The Christmas celebrations continued on at Stamford Bridge with a relatively comfortable victory over the south-coast side, with the Blues in control and on top for most of the afternoon with the lead taken midway through the first half.

Thibaut Courtois had to play his part in this win, but with Hazard and Pedro especially lively, more goals were always on the cards and they came early in the second half from the penalty spot and in added time when Pedro grabbed his second of the day and fifth of the season.

Presented with the challenge of replacing suspended topscorer Diego Costa for this match, Conte opted to shuffle his regular attacking players rather than give a full Premier League debut to Michy Batshuayi, so Eden Hazard, Willian and Pedro formed the front three. Cesc Fabregas came in for N’Golo Kante who was also serving a one-match ban. 

One of those entrusted to take the attack to Bournemouth, who themselves lined up with three at the back having been forced into a change there due to Nathan Ake’s ineligibility, almost got on to the end of a long ball from Azpilicueta but Pedro did not quite have the reach to bring it down and a corner won was the best he could achieve.

It was, in truth, an unremarkable opening 15 minutes to this Boxing Day game. A booking for the Cherries’ on-loan man from Arsenal, Jack Wilshere, for an arm-up challenge on Hazard was the only other incident in that spell.

Not long after that it needed Cesar Azpilicueta at his diligent best to cut out Bournemouth’s best attack yet.

Chelsea then began to make things happen. Hazard found Moses’s overlapping run with a well-judged ball and the Blues were unlucky not to win a corner, and then David Luiz’s anticipation started an attack which ended with Pedro rifling a shot across the face of goal. The man from Tenerife did not have to wait long to hit the target.

The Blues’ passing game clicked and unsurprisingly it was Fabregas who played a clever and crucial pass through a crowd to Pedro, whose finish was sublime. Turning onto his left foot, he clipped the ball perfectly to clear Artur Boruc but dip under the crossbar for a 1-0 lead. 

The goal came midway through the half but we needed Thibaut Courtois to save smartly from Wilshere soon after to preserve the lead.

The same Bournemouth player then fired on target after Matic’s soft clearance from a free-kick fell to him, but thankfully an outstretched Chelsea boot prevented another test for Courtois.

With 10 minutes to go to half-time, Hazard was dumped to the turf just outside the Bournemouth area. Willian and David Luiz stood aside for Fabregas but he chipped the free-kick onto the roof of the net.

A free-kick at the other end was the big talking point just before half-time. Not for the first time a Wilshere run caused problems but Gary Cahill and his colleagues were very upset when the defender’s tackle was ruled a foul. Thankfully Bournemouth’s attempt at goal only succeeded in bouncing off the middle of the Chelsea wall.

The league leaders had a half-time lead and were doing well in pressing and disrupting the visitors play for long spells, but we could do with more creativity ourselves to be totally confident another three points was coming our way.

Conte’s men started the second half sharply and within three minutes were given a big help towards our win by Bournemouth skipper Simon Francis. His clumsy attempt to challenge Hazard in the area was instantly whistled as a penalty and he had no argument.

 Hazard stroked the ball low into the net with Boruc wrong-footed. It was 2-0 with 49 minutes played. 

It was all Chelsea now. Hazard cut inside from the left but misdirected his shot, and Willian twice struck the ball at Boruc from the right. Moses hit a bouncing ball only just wide with an hour almost up.

Pedro picked up a yellow card that means he will be banned for the Stoke game, and he further demonstrated we will be without an in-form player for that New Year’s Eve game with a thrilling run and shot just wide.  

He and Hazard threatened more goals on the break although there was a warning the job was not yet done when substitute Benik Afobe got behind our defence and forced Courtois into a good save.

The Blues kept the ball and probed away for the remainder of the game and were rewarded with goal number three and our best winning margin since Everton were beaten here 5-0 at the start of November. Pedro, on the break once again, shot low from distance with his right this time and fortune was with him as it took a touch off a Bournemouth player to give Boruc no chance.

Fabregas Puts Chelsea to Six Points Lead with Sunderland Win

Chelsea got their 10th consecutive win for Antonio Conte,  who have not been beaten in the league since a 3-0 defeat at Arsenal on 24 September.

If the Italian leads his side the to the Premier League crown, that slump in north London one Saturday afternoon will burnish his myth.

Trailing 3-0 at the pause, Conte switched to the formation that had been his bedrock while in charge of Juventus and then Italy.

Arsenal cruised through the second half and the tactical change went virtualy unnoticed as talk began about how long Conte had left in the job at Chelsea following successive defeats to Liverpool and Arsenal.

A couple of months later - and two Premier League manager of the month awards - the debate is more about how to frustrate Conte's all conquering innovation.

Manchester City should have stopped the juggernaut on 3 December at the Etihad. Pep Guardiola's men were leading 1-0 and had a glorious chance to make it 2-0. The opportunity was squandered and Chelsea hit back to win 3-1. A week earlier, Tottenham Hotspur led at Stamford Bridge but Pedro and Victor Moses struck to end the visitors' unbeaten start.

Since the victory over Manchester City, there have been two 1-0 wins. Hardly spectacular like the 5-0 and 4-0 home romps over Everton and Manchester United respectively but three points nonetheless.

"I am pleased for my players because they deserve this 10th victory for their commitment and work-rate every day, in every training session, during the game", Conte said. "Now for sure we have to continue.

A trip to south-east London on Saturday to take on Crystal Palace is in the offing. Eden Hazard, who missed the voyage to Sunderland, should be fit to return to the line-up.

On Wednesday night, it was one of the putative forgotten men who secured the victory. Fabregas has been one of the main casualties of Conte's 3-4-3 with the Italian preferring the shields of Nemanja Matic and N'Golo Kante in the middle rather than the Spain international's playmaking genius.

With Matic injured, Fabregas has entered and his renowned range of passing has posed a different set of problems for opponents relying on defence.

"The performance was really good and I felt we were very, very strong," said Fabregas after the game. "Now we want to keep winning. Hopefully we can continue like this and send out a strong message."

The 29-year-old former Arsenal and Barcelona star added: "People forget that it's only my second time in my career that I've played this system. My teammates have played it much more, but I'm getting used to it and feel very comfortable."

Home games against Bournemouth and Stoke over Christmas follow the match at Palace. "I prefer not to look at the top of the table," Conte said. "We are doing something important up to now, but the league doesn't finish today. There are still three games before the halfway stage of the season. And then another 19.

David Moyes, the Sunderland manager, is facing a fight for survival rather than glory. Sunderland are bottom after 16 games with 11 points. The safety of 17th place is four points away.

Moyes says he believes the strong showing against Chelsea offers hope. "We can come off saying we have had a right go at a top team," he said. "We got better in the second half and finished strongly. But didn't quite do enough to get something out of the game."

Moyes added: "Their keeper made two great saves. "You need a top keeper and a top striker and we have that here, but so have Chelsea and they are a real threat.

"It's too early to say if Chelsea will be champions. We restricted them to a few scoring opportunities but we couldn't stop them controlling the game."