“Football is unexpected,” said Cesc Fabregas as he ponders his move from Barcelona to Chelsea last summer.
For most of his football life, Fabregas and his new manager Jose Mourinho had been rivals. The Spaniard was in his formative years when Mourinho was transforming Chelsea from a team that the midfielder’s former side Arsenal had become accustomed to beating into one that always seemed to be one step ahead of the north Londoners. And when Fabregas fulfilled his dream of returning to his boyhood club Barcelona in 2011, he found Mourinho at the helm of a record-breaking Real Madrid side that finished nine points ahead of the Catalans in his first season back in Spain.
Fabregas is now, however, an integral part of the Mourinho winning machine. We meet the 28-year-old less than a week after he won the Premier League title with Chelsea – an achievement that eluded him throughout his eight years at Arsenal. “It’s been a very good year,” he grins. “We won two trophies (the Blues also won the Capital One Cup in March) and hopefully it’s just the beginning of something very good for this club. That’s what you hope, that’s what you want and that’s what you fight for.”
He has enjoyed four days off on Mourinho’s instruction. But today Fabregas goes back to work, with the team set to meet at Chelsea’s training ground in a few hours’ time to prepare for their first match as league champions. Until then, and with a large sushi order on the way to ensure he arrives at Cobham fully fuelled, Fabregas is ours to ask how an unexpected link- up with a former foe turned into one of the season’s biggest success stories…
Was there a moment or match during the season when you first realised this was a title-winning team?
“Basically, in all the big games. Almost every three days we were competing in the Champions League, Capital One Cup or Premier League. And, up until now, we’ve lost only three games all season. That’s remarkable, I’d say, because we’ve played more than 50 games for sure [Chelsea’s 1-1 draw with Liverpool last weekend was their 52nd game of the season]. That’s not an easy thing to do, considering the high level football is at these days. I knew from the beginning that we had a good squad and all the ingredients to have a good season, but you still have to perform to make that happen. We’ve been very consistent throughout the whole season. And, at the end, it’s the most consistent teams that get silverware.”
Was the transition from playing in Spain to returning to the Premier League as straightforward as many presumed it would be for you?
“There is always something you have to adjust to when you go to a new club, as much as it is the same league that I played in for eight years at Arsenal. When you change clubs, though, there are new people, new tactics, a new manager, new everything. So you have to adapt and adjust to what the team wants from you. But apart from that, I have always just tried to play my game, be natural and be efficient.”
Six assists in your first four Premier League games of the season suggest it didn’t take you too long to adapt…
“I just tried to play my football, really. I’ve been lucky enough that the manager has believed in me and that he allows me to play the way I feel – this is always important. Of course he asks me to do specific things on the pitch. But, apart from that – and especially when we have the ball – I can be free and I can play how I think the game needs to be played. That is always important for me.”
Did you come to Chelsea with any expectations of what it would be like to work with Mourinho, given how often you’ve played against him in your career?
“I had my thoughts, but until you work with the person who you expect things from, or who you don’t really know about, then you are always curious to see how things will really be. And so far, so good. I’m learning a lot. He’s making me feel things that I hadn’t felt for a while. And I feel very important, which is vital.”
Has there been anything about his management style that surprised you?
“No, I know that he really fights for his players; he defends his players to the end. He’s very demanding. He wants the best out of you every single day, and that’s what I want: a manager who makes you feel at the top of your game. With him you also know you have to be at the top of your game, otherwise you don’t play. This is good for the whole squad because you know if you are competing well, you will have your chance. It’s a very fair approach. The motivation he has given to the team all season is not easy. Sometimes when you win too much or when you lose, it can either give you too much confidence or not enough. But he always maintains the right balance. And he always wants to win.”
From what you’ve seen at Chelsea and other teams you’ve played for, how much does the attitude of the players on the pitch reflect the manager’s approach?
“I’ve always said the manager makes a big difference. There are so many examples, like at Atletico Madrid with [Diego] Simeone. Compare how they were before him with how they are now. And with Mourinho it is the same thing. When he went to Real Madrid, they won the league with 100 points. Now in England he comes back and wins the Premier League after Chelsea went five years without winning it. So for me, a manager is very important, because if a player doesn’t believe in his manager then I know from experience that it’s not going to work as well. It is a difficult job because you have to make your players believe in what you say, in what you do and in how you want to play. If your players don’t believe, then you can try to do as much as you want – [but] there will never be a connection. I think he [Mourinho] is vital. He is very good at this.”
Chelsea started the season in sensational form, but slowed somewhat as the season progressed. Are there lessons you can take from this year to ensure that early form is maintained next season?
“You don’t necessarily need to always play the way we did at the beginning to win things. We’ve shown that. If you look at it, the only time when you can say that we didn’t perform as well as we could have was during the second half of the game against Paris Saint-Germain when we went out of the Champions League. The first leg in Paris, I think we played a solid game. A draw was a good result for us. But it’s true that in the second half of the second leg, when PSG had ten men [after Zlatan Ibrahimovic was sent off on 31 minutes], we maybe should have approached the game in a different way. We should have played better than we did. Apart from that, you can mention the result against Bradford [Chelsea lost 4-2 at home to the Bantams in the fourth round of the FA Cup], when a lot of players were rested and others were on the bench. There was a lot of rotation for that game, so I don’t take that result as anything big because I know these kinds of things can happen – especially in English football.”
So you don’t agree that Chelsea were grinding out results more as the season went on?
“In the league we’ve won nearly all our games, and that’s in the second half of the season as well. Whether we have done that by playing better or worse, I don’t know. But it was done by playing for the result that we wanted, which was to win. And that’s what we did. Maybe we didn’t play as fluently as before or with the same freedom, but we got results. So I get surprised when people say that we didn’t play as well as in the first half of the season, because when you win the league with the amount of points and wins that we have got, and having lost only two games, it’s a bit too much [smiles].”
Members of the Arsenal side that went through the 2003-04 season unbeaten have said they went into every game with an unshakeable belief. Has there been a similar feeling around Chelsea this season?
“To be honest, the feeling I had was that we could beat anyone. That’s how I felt before going into games. We lost games against Tottenham and Newcastle, but they are two difficult places to go during the season. And the Spurs game came during the Christmas period when everything is a little bit crazy, because there are too many games and the team has to be rotated – so it can happen. We went out of the Champions League without losing a single game. So it has been a good season, really, and the confidence of the team has been very high.”
Was that Champions League exit the toughest point of the season for you?
“Yes, 100 per cent. We were very disappointed to go out, but these things can happen. And it’s PSG – they have also invested a lot in the team and have great players. But it happened and it’s the only thing that I have negative in my mind for this season.”
What was it like for you going back to the Emirates as a Chelsea player? Were you surprised at the booing from some sections of the crowd?
“There was some at the beginning, but at the end of the game when I came off it was very nice. So that’s what I take from it. I just tried to take it as a normal day and play my game. It is difficult because obviously I know I played there for many years. I know the pitch and the memories do come back to you, but you have to be professional and get the three points for your team. Well, that’s what I hoped for. As it turned out, the [0-0] draw was a very good result for us.”
Do you think the Premier League has changed at all in the years between you leaving Arsenal and joining Chelsea?
“Yes, I think the league is improving. I think it’s tactically much better. It is growing up. At places like QPR, Hull, Leicester and Burnley we won all our games but I think it was the individual quality that always made the difference. That means that collectively, the teams in England are tactically very strong. They defend better, there are not so many spaces in the middle of the park and they know how to press. That’s why every year it’s more difficult to get results.”
What about personally? Are you a different player compared to the one who left England for Spain in 2011?
“In Spain I learned a lot, especially tactically. That Barcelona team was a very experienced one. They won many trophies, so to go there you had to be at your best. I learned a lot from all the players there. I also feel more mature now, having played in England before and then in Spain. I have played for such big clubs with great players and in so many big tournaments. I feel grateful for that because I have matured a lot and it shows on the pitch. I can feel it.”
When you’re playing alongside someone like Lionel Messi, like you did at Barcelona, do you try and take in everything you can from him?
“I absorbed a lot from him. But obviously to reach Messi’s level is impossible because he is one of a kind. But I soaked up everything I could. Technically and tactically, I have learned a lot and I’m very proud of that.”
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