Chelsea still wary of Tottenham in Premier League following FA Cup win, says Cesc Fabregas

Chelsea's Cesc Fabregas and Tottenham's Mousa Dembele in action during the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley Stadium on April 22, 2017. Mike Hewitt / Getty Images

Cesc Fabregas has downplayed the potential effect of Chelsea’s FA Cup semi-final win over Tottenham Hotspur on the Premier League title race.

Chelsea beat Tottenham Hotspur 4-2 at Wembley Stadium on Saturday, but Fabregas is wary of Mauricio Pochettino's men, who sit four points behind them in the league table with six games to play.

“(We have) six games where every single one of them we need three points, because I don’t believe Spurs will drop too many,” Fabregas said.

Chelsea’s full focus is now on the league before the May 27 Wembley FA Cup final, where they will bid to win the competition for the first time since 2012.

Chelsea head coach Antonio Conte has bemoaned the proximity of Tuesday’s Premier League clash with Southampton and the fact Spurs have 24 additional hours to prepare for their game at Crystal Palace on Wednesday.

Fixture congestion has been something of a rarity for Chelsea this season, with the London side not competing in Europe, something Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has been only too keen to point out.

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And Fabregas admitted Chelsea’s absence from the Uefa Champions League and the Europa League after last season’s 10th-placed finish has been beneficial as the leaders face an important period of fixtures, with a trip to Everton following on April 30.

“It’s the first time Chelsea have not been in Europe for a very long time,” Fabregas added. “Maybe it has been a little bit of an advantage because we didn’t have to rotate as much.”

Conte did rotate at Wembley, leaving Eden Hazard, Diego Costa and Fabregas on the substitutes’ bench.

Hazard, in particular, was influential in the decisive moments of the game and scored Chelsea’s third goal after coming on.

Fabregas added: “To have these kind of players and then when we are struggling at 2-2 in the second half we can bring these type of players it’s fantastic and it worked very well.”

Chelsea’s lead was seven points before last Sunday’s 2-0 loss at Mourinho’s United. And Fabregas praised the response of his teammates to the setback.

He added: “The good thing this season is that every time we had a defeat or draw we bounced back very quickly.

“We didn’t have time to let ourselves feel sorry. That’s a good quality.

“There’s always moments for every team to, not collapse, but to drop points.

“It happened to us in the last four games. We just have to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“There’s winners in this team and we have to keep it up. It’s these little details that make you champions or not.”

* Agence France-Presse

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