Submitted by isport on Wed, 09/20/2017 - 14:19
Antonio Conte has given a word of advice for midfielder Cesc Fabregas to have a regular place in the Chelsea first-team. The Spaniard was surprisingly preferred over Nemanja Matic, who ended up leaving the club for Manchester United in a £ 40 million deal.
However, Chelsea have quickly strengthened the competition in the middle of the park by bringing in Danny Drinkwater from Leicester City for £ 35 million. As a result, Fabregas is expected to have a tough competition in the midfield with the likes of N’Golo Kante and Tiemoue Bakayoko fighting for a place alongside the newly recruited Drinkwater.
Fabregas has been quite impressive in the first few weeks of the season. He was sent off in the first weekend and did not take part in the match against Tottenham. However, he came up with the opening goal in the win over Everton during the weekend. Even though his passing accuracy was not his usual self, it was still an impressive performance. Fans who think he can still cut it should take a look at the Bet365 signup guide, as you can get fantastic odds on him getting back to his 'PFA Player of the Year' best by the end of the season.
In spite of this up-turn in form, his manager, a notoriously hard man to please, feels that the Spaniard should start working more off the ball. He has pointed out to the workrate provided by N’Golo Kante as the ideal performance he is expecting from his midfielder.
Kante ran the most miles of any Premier League footballer in the 2016/17 season, with his abaility to cover so much ground in a single game the key to him getting high up the league tables to blocks, tackles and interceptions. Whilst Kante is probably expected to sit a little further back than Cesc, if anything this means that Cesc should be out-running the Frenchman, as he bombs forward to help the Chelsea attacks.
Last season, Fabregas was not one of the first-team regulars but Conte praised the attitude of the former Barcelona midfielder. “Cesc played a good game. Like Cesc, all of the players performed very well. He scored an important goal for us. We all know his characteristics – he's a great player with good technique. When we have possession, with Cesc, we can play really good football. But he's also trying to improve in defensive situations to try and be more strong, to be a bit more like N'Golo [Kante]. But he has work to do, and N'Golo has to work be become more like Cesc with the ball,” said Conte.