Anatomy of a Goal: You need real defensive midfielders against Chelsea, or else

Chelsea obliterated Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday, scoring four goals in the opening half en route to a dominant 5-0 victory, ensuring they'll remain at the top of the Premier League table for another week.

Oscar and Diego Costa each found the net twice, while Andre Schurrle closed out the proceedings when the result was already well beyond doubt. Of those five tallies, it was the second goal - Costa's first of the contest - that epitomized the Swans' downfall on the day.

First, the goal in full:

(Courtesy: TSN)

Bereft of his best defensive midfield options - Ki Sung-yueng is away with South Korea at the Asian Cup while Jonjo Shelvey is suspended - Swansea manager Garry Monk opted to thrust arguably his most creative midfielder, Gylfi Sigurdsson, in a holding role.

It didn't work out very well, and the goal above is a perfect illustration of what happens when you don't have a true defensive midfielder that can disrupt Chelsea's quick, incisive passing game.

Initially, the Icelandic international is in good defensive position in the build-up to the goal, sitting in front of the back-four and tracking Eden Hazard, who is running across the pitch from right-to-left.

So far, so good. Then things get considerably less good for Swansea. Quickly.

Sigurdsson follows Hazard too far wide - which is partly his fault, and partly down to the Belgian's clever run that intentionally drags his opponent with him - and opens up a huge hole just on the edge of the penalty area.

The arrow below isn't to suggest that Chelsea wouldn't have scored if Sigurdsson was in that more central area, but he certainly would have given himself an opportunity to impede the attack. More importantly, giving assist wizard Cesc Fabregas more than a sliver of space is a recipe for disaster.

You can also see the triangle between Fabregas, Willian and Oscar begin to take shape - which they exploit to perfection with three quick passes.

Those first-touch passes from the Brazilian duo ultimately lead to Fabregas regaining possession at the top of the Swansea box, and by that time Sigurdsson (indicated by the arrow) is too late to come over and shut down the passing lane that has formed.

For someone with 14 Premier League assists on the campaign - 15 after this goal - Fabregas could have driven an 18-wheeler through the opening that presented itself.

Don't pin all of this on Sigurdsson, though. It's important to note the attacking juggernaut that is Chelsea is capable of making even the best defensive midfielder look ordinary. In that context, asking a player who operates - and thrives - in an attacking midfield role to operate in an unnatural position, and do so against the league leaders, is almost torture.

So while Sigurdsson didn't perform well in the role, perhaps his manager should bear the brunt of the criticism for setting him up to fail.