Chelsea tough it out

Cesc Fabregas does not do scruffy goals and he tends not to tough it out at Stoke either, but the Chelsea midfielder picked the perfect time to do both by inspiring his team to a victory that carried the hallmark of champions.

Fabregas, booed by the home crowd for being the outspoken face of the Arsenal team who castigated Stoke City for the broken leg suffered by Aaron Ramsey at the Britannia Stadium four years ago, has endured enough bruises and battering in the Potteries to scar him for the remainder of his career.

But the Spaniard came of age in a Chelsea shirt on a night when Mark Hughes’ players tried and failed to intimidate a Chelsea team, which moved three points clear of Manchester City at the top of the table with this win.

Fabregas’ second-half goal, following John Terry’s second-minute opener, confirmed the victory, which proved that Jose Mourinho’s team have the steel to stay ahead of Manchester City and end Chelsea’s five-year wait for a league title.

“It is a victory that means more than three points because, to win here, you have to show more than your quality,” Mourinho said. “Only with a great team performance is it possible to win at Stoke.”

With City moving level on points with Chelsea at the weekend, the response of Mourinho’s players was always likely to offer a gauge of their readiness to battle for the title. They would either display signs of being choked by the pressure or deliver a firm statement of intent.

The latter was no formality after they had dropped points at Newcastle and Sunderland recently, but Chelsea were fired up and motivated by the challenge, both physical and psychological.

And they struck the home crowd to silence after only 96 seconds when Terry extended his run of scoring to 15 consecutive seasons, heading Fabregas’ corner past Asmir Begovic for his first league goal in 12 months.

Stoke responded in typical fashion. Hughes has done much to change their approach since replacing Tony Pulis 18 months ago, but his players remain as belligerent as they were under Pulis. Phil Bardsley and Ryan Shawcross, in particular, typified Stoke’s hit-them-hard mantra, with Bardsley fortunate to stay on the pitch after earning only one booking for two crude fouls on Eden Hazard.

However, the devil in Stoke’s game served its purpose, in that it distracted Chelsea and enticed them into a scrap.

Though this was a game of few chances, that was largely down to Chelsea’s discipline and organisation rather than a lack of creativity.

At 1-0 up, few Mourinho teams will abandon their defensive shape in favour of a cavalier goal hunt. It may not be pretty, but it is an approach that wins trophies.

Fabregas, whose time at Arsenal was a tale of beautiful football with nothing to show for it, may discover this season that pragmatism wins more than panache.

The trickery of Hazard and the constant threat of Diego Costa ensure that Chelsea will always pose a danger to opponents when ahead, but their rock-solid adherence to Mourinho’s game plan was just as impressive as the skills of the expensive attacking outlets.

Having suffered a 3-2 defeat against Stoke here last season, the prospects of lightning striking twice were as good as extinguished the moment Terry gave Chelsea the lead, because the visitors’ controlled every department on the pitch.

They needed only a second goal to reflect their dominance. When it came, it was a scuff from Fabregas’ right boot rather than the more aesthetic finish that one would associate with the Spaniard.

Neat and tidy it was not, but the league table is all that Fabregas and Chelsea will worry about.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

Mark Ogden is The Daily Telegraph’s northern football correspondent.