For the twelfth time this season, including once in the League Cup, defender Gary Cahill started a Chelsea game as team captain. Chelsea have won all twelve, including eleven in a row in the league using the 3-4-3 system that continues to provide great results.
Cahill certainly isn't Chelsea's only on-pitch leader, but he's usually the most senior player in the starting lineup — he will be celebrating his 31st birthday on Monday — and thus an obvious choice for the armband when the only two older outfield players, John Terry and Branislav Ivanović aren't playing. Plus, EBGC's rocking the beard nowadays, too, and that's an instant 10% boost in leadership attributes.
"We feel very confident. We're a very strong team and we've worked very hard on it. Physically, we're in good shape and we've got some fantastic players, so that's the reason behind it. We're organised and we're enjoying it."
"You build momentum, you win games, you step out on the pitch or you're in the tunnel and you're confident. That's the way it's gone for us. We want to keep going. We're up to Christmas now, so there's a lot of football left to play, but it's a record that we should be very proud of."
-Gary Cahill; source: Sky Sports via FourFourTwo
Cahill also reflected on missing a sitter when Alonso's free kick rebounded off the crossbar (thinking about the celebration already!), but fortunately it did not come back to bite us. With Cahill tied to the team for another three and a half years, he should have plenty more opportunities to make up for that miss.
No one expected Chelsea to bounce back from last season in such a spectacular way, sitting at least six, possibly even eight points ahead of second place at Christmas. The Blues just keep on winning and are showing no signs of slowing down — which is good, considering that there's still over half the season yet to go...