Chelsea’s Fabregas gets greatest thrill from beating Spurs

Chelsea midfielder Cesc Fabregas admits he used to relish beating the Blues more than any other side, but now that honour belongs to Premier League rivals Spurs.

As an Arsenal and Barcelona player, the 29-year-old Spain international locked horns with his current employers on many occasions, regularly coming out on both sides of the result.

But now he wears the blue jersey, Fabregas revealed he will always get his greatest satisfaction from beating Tottenham – currently second beyond the south-west Londoners in the Premier League standings.

“Chelsea used to be the team I enjoyed beating the most! Now, there will always be something against Spurs,” he said.

“From my time at Arsenal, now my time at Chelsea, obviously it’s a team that has always been a rival of mine.

“So inside, I will always have an especially good feeling when we beat them.”

Fabregas has not had the game time he will have wanted this term, being used primarily as an impact substitute in the second half of matches by manager Antonio Conte.

But he has featured in 25 of Chelsea’s 35 matches so far this season, and insists he is happy working under the Italian.

He added: “I think at the beginning, when we all saw the methods that he worked on and stuff, we thought, ‘wow, this is very hard.’

“At the time, we thought he might have been a little bit too demanding, but it really paid off as he put everyone into shape very quickly, and we were training our tactics every single day.

“Maybe we didn’t do that so much before with Jose [Mourinho], so every day we are repeating what [Conte] wants and it’s a big compliment for him that we have been able to achieve what we have done so fast.”