At the time of writing, Cesc Fabregas leads the way across the bookies as the favourite to win the PFA Player of the Year award; priced at 5/2 with his nearest rival Alexis Sanchez best priced at 7/2 odds on (an article could probably be written on how Sanchez should be favourite, but maybe that’s for another day). Whilst not many would argue against the silky Spaniard’s contribution to his club this season so far, it will perhaps surprise many readers that the man who has been at the heart of Chelsea’s dominance this season is prone to suffer a second-half season syndrome for one reason or another.
Fàbregas isn’t just on top of the table with his club or with the bookmakers for the personal award, he is miles ahead in the assists charts with an incredible 16 to his name already. You’d have to add Baines’ and Sigurdsson’s, who sit 2nd and 3rd with 8 each, totals together to overtake him and even then he’d only be two behind. Fàbregas hasn’t just assisted goals, however, but he has played a pivotal role in Mourinho’s tactics right from the go- sitting in front of the defence dictating play with ease at times-and it is hard to imagine that Chelsea would be where they are now without him there.
Costing a mere £30 million, his summer move from the Catalonians is widely regarded as the savviest piece of transfer business from an English club in a long time but after viewing his records from the past four seasons there is a reason for Chelsea fans to be a little wary from now until May. I’ll let the table do the talking:
| Season | Time of season | Games | Goals | Assists |
| 2010/11 | First half | 12 | 3 | 6 |
| Second half | 13 | 0 | 5 | |
| 2011/12 | First half | 14 | 9 | 5 |
| Second half | 14 | 0 | 3 | |
| 2012/13 | First half | 17 | 6 | 9 |
| Second half | 15 | 5 | 2 | |
| 2013/14 | First half | 18 | 7 | 10 |
| Second half | 18 | 1 | 3 |
For me, stats don’t tell half the story in football and people who base an opinion on them are gullible. For example, stats show that Ronaldo has more goals and assists than Messi over the past year and a half- an incredible one in itself. But what it doesn’t show is the influence each player has in a game; and anyone who watches football will see how the Barcelona wizard dominates the Ballon D’or winner in this sense.
But what we have here cannot be ignored; or in fact forgotten. Over this time period if we split the season in halves, Fàbregas has a total of 25 goals and 30 assists in 61 games for the first half of the season. Adding his second half tally shows he has 6 goals and 13 assists in 60 games and the comparison between the two is quite shocking for someone at any standard, yet alone with his glory.
Worryingly for Chelsea fans, Fàbregas does seem to have distanced from his early season form and although that could be seen to have been inevitable, the recent New Year’s Day performance at Spurs raises questions over Fàbregas and his teammates who were once tipped to go unbeaten for a season. Man City have somehow closed the gap quite unnoticeably and with their latest signing of Wilfred Bony signifying the intent to defend their Premier League title the race for the title is well and truly on. And if history is to repeat itself for Fàbregas, Chelsea will be in for a tough ride. I suppose only time will tell….
