Chelsea boss Antonio Conte has admitted he has changed his mind about midfielder Cesc Fabregas, praising the Spaniard for the way he has forced himself into the Blues team.

Fabregas was initially struggling for game time when Conte first became manager, and rumours circulated about him potentially leaving Stamford Bridge. He went on to play make 13 starts for Chelsea during the season as they went on to win the Premier League.

This season, the Spain international has been one of many bright sparks in Conte’s side, and has already made 12 league starts this season, showing just how much the boss’ opinion of his has changed.

“Cesc at the start of last season didn’t play a lot, but I was very happy because through the work he tried to change my mind and it happened,” Conte said.

“If you remember the second part of last season he started to play with regularity and first part of last season I played almost every game with [N’Golo] Kante and [Nemanja] Matic.”

“But in the second part of the season Cesc played a lot of games, and he was very important for us to win the title.

“This season he has continued to work very hard, showed me great commitment and behaviour and the coach has to make the best decision.

“He is still young for sure. When you are 30 years old you have at least five more years to play football.

“At this level you must have great desire and great will to play at this level because it is not simple.

“There is a lot of competition with other players but Cesc has great ambition. He’s a winner in his mind, in his mentality. For this reason he is very strong.”
[Quotes via Goal.com]