Chelsea's capture of Cesc Fabregas is the best Premier League signing of the summer
Watching Fabregas in his No 4 blue shirt will take some getting used to, but it should not take the midfielder long to underline why Chelsea have secured arguably the coup of the summer.
At £27 million, Fabregas was cheaper than Alexis Sánchez, Diego Costa, Luke Shaw and Ander Herrera. He cost Chelsea only £2 million more than Liverpool paid Southampton for Adam Lallana.
It is easy to think that Fabregas must have failed at Barca to have returned to England so soon, but the figures suggest otherwise.
Last season was his best in La Liga for assists, with 13, while only goalkeeper Victor Valdes started more league games in 2012-13. During that campaign, Fabregas was second in the Barca scoring charts behind Lionel Messi and third behind Andrés Iniesta and Messi for the player with the most assists.
“It’s true that I have been playing in different positions at Barcelona and I learnt a lot from this as well – it made me a more complete footballer,” Fabregas said.
“However, I know my place is in midfield – I want to play there and I think the coach [Jose Mourinho] knows that.
“This is where I think I can give my best. It doesn’t matter if I’m just in front of the defence or playing behind the strikers, they are two positions I really enjoy.
They expect Fabregas to address that problem. Manchester City’s David Silva played the most through-balls per game last term, but Fabregas beat his 0.59 average in each of his last five seasons for Barcelona and Arsenal.
Silva also made the most key passes per Premier League game last season with an average of 3.2. Fabregas bettered that figure in 2009-10 and was slightly behind it in 2010-11.
“I have only just started my career here, but I don’t consider myself to be a replacement for anyone,” Fabregas said. “Maybe I don’t score as much as Frank, but I like to assist more. For me, we are different players and cannot be compared.”
Striker Diego Costa may well be the big beneficiary of the change in Chelsea’s midfield and Fabregas said: “He goes behind the defence, making the kind of runs players like me are really happy with because it gives you an option to play the killer ball. He will do superbly here.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/...the-summer.html
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