Chelsea midfielder, Cesc Fabregas believes he is winning the biggest battle of his career.
The Spaniard admits it would have been easy to sulk, run away and quit Chelsea after losing his place when Antonio Conte took over the reigns at Stamford Bridge last summer.
But Fabregas says his love of English football, London and a new found maturity convinced him to stay and fight for his future at Stamford Bridge.
However, the 29-year old's determination is paying huge dividends because on Saturday, he capped his 300th Premier League appearance with a goal, an assist and a man-of-the match performance.
The Chelsea midfielder said: “Experience and maturity gives you this because in the beginning when I didn’t play, I told people not even to speak to me because I was really upset.
“But that changes with time. Age, maturity and experience helps you understand that the most important thing is always the team.
“Don’t get me wrong, I want to play. Every football player wants to play every single minute but sometimes you have to fight for it.
Sometimes the easy way is to escape, to run away, to sulk and to want to leave, to create a drama.
“But in my mind, I decided I wanted to challenge myself, not everything comes easy in life, sometimes you have to fight certain situations you are not used to, or are against you in a way.
But hopefully I have shown the manager can trust me in a way.”
Fabregas added: “What keeps me going is the fact that I feel really good, I feel in great condition to play football for a very long time.
I know in my legs, in my mind, I know I’ve played many more games than a 29-year-old is supposed to play.
“But I feel young in my mind. It’s all in the mind. I feel fresh.
Now with Conte, I’m learning new things, new situations, new manners, new football, new philosophy which makes a difference, it makes it entertaining.
“I know sometimes I didn’t play as much but even in training I’m learning and sometimes you think if you’ve been playing for a long time, won a lot, you’ve done everything and then you realise that in football you can never know everything.
“I’m in a good moment, a good situation and hopefully I’ve reversed the situation from the beginning of the season to now and hopefully I can keep playing like that to keep my place.”
Fabregas was terrific against Swansea, opening the scoring, hitting the crossbar and then helping inspire the victory as Pedro and Diego Costa struck late on after Fernando Llorente equalised.
The Chelsea fans were chanting his name at the end nearly as loudly as when Frank Lampard was given a hero’s reception at half time when he was paraded on the pitch after announcing his retirement.
That is a big compliment to Fabregas as having played for London rivals Arsenal, it was always going to be tough to win some over but the Spain midfielder says he almost feels English after living here for so long.
Fabregas added: “I’m 50-50! Listen, England gave me a lot in my life, in my career, Arsenal. I really identify with England. With the lifestyle, education, everything.
My daughter was born here, my wife is from here. Of course I’m Spanish, Catalan, but I feel really adapted to life here.
“I like many things. As I said, the education of the people, the lifestyle of the people.
I’m in love with London, I really like the city, how everyone behaves.
The kind of people who are around.
“Everyone treated me like a son from day one. People helped me to grow up.
I came here as a boy at 16, then I went back to Barcelona as a man and now I’m back and I will always be grateful to England in general, but London especially with Arsenal and Chelsea."
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