With Chelsea drawing 2-2 at Swansea in the Premier League thanks to two goals from Diego Costa, we take a look at the five things we learned from the game.
Chelsea drew 2-2 with Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium in the Premier League on Sunday, after Diego Costa scored a spectacular overhead kick in the 81st minute to salvage a point for the visitors.
Antonio Conte’s side dropped their first points of the season as they controlled the early part of the game, before the Spaniard gave Chelsea an early lead.
But in the second half Chelsea imploded as they conceded two goals inside three minutes, in what turned the game on its head with Chelsea appearing to be in complete control.
First Gylfi Sigurdsson scored from the penalty spot after Thibault Courtois had lunged at the Iceland international. Swansea then got a second when Gary Cahill lost the ball after he was dispossessed by Leroy Fer near the edge of his own box, the Dutchman then found himself one-on-one with Courtois and managed to bundle the ball over the line to make it 2-1.
But it was Costa who had the final say as he scored his spectacular effort as Chelsea maintained an unbeaten start to the Premier League season.
We take a look at the five things we learned from Swansea against Chelsea.
Chelsea have a fight that was not there last season
Against Swansea, Chelsea showed a fight and resilience that wasn’t evident last season, and proof of that was how they got their equaliser. Having been 2-1 down in such dramatic style, they fought to get something from the game, and leading that fight was, as expected, Diego Costa.
The Chelsea of last season would have let the game get away from them, but under Conte they seem up for fighting for every point, and Costa in particular still looks like the player of old, still out to torment.
Defensive frailty is still there
The Chelsea side we saw last season at times looked weak defensively, and there were signs against Swansea that those defensive mistakes are still there.
Cahill’s error, despite his insistence he was fouled, was poor, and if Conte is to mount a serious challenge for the Premier League title he must eradicate this mistakes quickly.
Costa is Chelsea’s go-to man
Costa, like him or loathe him, is Chelsea’s go-to man right now. The Spaniard has scored four Premier League goals in four games and was Chelsea’s man of the match.
The Spaniard had duels all afternoon with a number of Swansea players, and as usual, relished the battle. As aggressive as the forward was, and is on a weekly basis, it was his goals that continued the unbeaten start to the season.
Conte may now switch to a back three
Having seen Chelsea go from 1-0 up to 2-1 down in such a dramatic way, Conte may now decide that the time is right to switch to the back three, despite John Terry leaving the Liberty Stadium on crutches.
Both David Luiz and Marcos Alonso were among Chelsea’s substitutes and Conte could bring both players in for the next game at home to Liverpool, even if Terry is not fit to play.
Hazard is not quite back to his best, but is getting there
Against Swansea, Eden Hazard showed glimpses of the player that we saw two seasons ago, even if those were small glimpses. Still what is more evident is that the Belgium midfielder has not quite got over last season.
While he is showing that he is nearing that sparkling form that won him all those player of the season awards in 2014/15, he is still a little way off, but what is clear is that Conte may still get him there.
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