The 29-year-old said moving away from Stamford Bridge was never a consideration. Whereas Bastian Schweinsteiger and Yaya Toure have been completely frozen out at Manchester United and City respectively, banished to whatever the reserves team are titled nowadays, Fabregas is still a part of Conte’s first-team squad. “It hurts a lot not to play, but I know that I have enough level to play here and I will give my best”.
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The defensive midfielder finally made his senior Chelsea debut when he came on as an 80th minute substitute for Michy Batshuayi against Leicester, with the Blues ultimately winning the contest by scoring twice in extra-time.
Chelsea deserved to progress but Foxes boss Claudio Ranieri will perhaps be buoyed by his side’s performance for much of the game, with glimpses of the incisive attacking and compact defending that helped them win the title last season.
Fabregas is yet to start in the Premier League under Conte, with his only other start coming in the EFL Cup win over Bristol City last month, with Nemanja Matic, N’Golo Kante and Oscar preferred.
Chelsea have scored in every game this season and their attacking strength came to the fore towards the end of this game.
The 80-yard dash and knee-slide may not have counted towards the running statistics Antonio Conte likes to study, but the celebration in front of Chelsea’s travelling supporters demonstrated the way in which Cesc Fabregas is tackling the biggest challenge of his career. He wants the midfielders to be very complete.
Fabregas has succeeded in turning around his relationship with Chelsea’s fans.
“This is very important because it showed the will to win and to go into the next round”.
The opening goal did arrive in the 17th minute, but it was Leicester who got it through Okazaki.
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Fabregas spent eight years at Arsenal before a 2011 move to Barcelona, who sold him to Chelsea two years ago, and admits he is desperate to play against his former club. He may not be able to press, to tackle, to run beyond the striker or adequately track his man, but Fabregas is certainly that.
