Despite a glittering career so far, the 29-year-old former World Cup victor has found himself in a fringe role at the Blues since Conte was brought in as the club’s new head coach.
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Arsene Wenger will recall a host of first-team regulars for Saturday’s Premier League clash at home to Chelsea.
Fabregas has been on the fringes of Coach Antonio Conte’s squad since the start of the season, having made just three league appearances from the bench.
“Cesc is an intelligent player, a clever player and he sees the game, he feels the situation”, Conte said.
“I am seeing him very focused and concentrated during the training sessions”.
“But of course I do not watch him or Fabregas in training and without seeing either player every day it is hard to demand that he has to play – that is for Conte to decide”.
“I appreciated the attitude and commitment of my players”. When I called him to come on in the (Liverpool) game, too.
“For Matic, who is the opposite of me, he wants him to be better offensively”.
Terry is making good progress in his recovery from an ankle injury and Chelsea were hopeful he would return for the London derby. “I don’t know when he will be back”, the Italian coach told the media at his press conference on Friday.
“I know what I can do”.
“When we concede a goal, all the team concede a goal, not only the defenders”.
He added: “Even in the summer, when there were so many rumours, I never thought about leaving Chelsea”. Not just the defenders.
“We must work on the defensive aspect because if you want a great championship you must not concede so many goals”.
The problem was already there last season.
Terry has also been crucial in Chelsea being undefeated against Arsenal in their past nine league meetings and instrumental in them not conceding during the last six of those. “We can improve a lot”. Unlike his Chelsea predecessor, Jose Mourinho, the Italian does not believe a manager’s work should be judged exclusively on winning.
“We face a good team and I’m sure Arsenal will fight until the end to win the title”. “But to stay up there every year is not easy”. If you ask me if I am happy for the two goals conceded, I am not happy, but I saw a good reaction from all of my players.
“Arsenal has a good story”.
“Sometimes I think it is important to value a manager not only if he wins, loses or draws”. In the next game.
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“This is very important because it showed the will to win and to go into the next round”. It’s what I work for.
