Cesc Fabregas challenges Chelsea to rule Europe next season

The Blues won the Premier League title on Sunday

Cesc Fabregas has called on his Chelsea team-mates to dominate in Europe next term (GETTY IMAGES)

Cesc Fabregas has challenged his Chelsea team to be “one of the best in Europe” as they seek to build on the Premier League title secured on Sunday.

In the aftermath of the 1-0 defeat of Crystal Palace which made Chelsea champions, Fabregas heralded the start of a “new era” at the club, built around a generation of younger players the manager, Jose Mourinho, is bringing through.

The next challenge for this team is to retain the Premier League and win the Champions League, which Chelsea were knocked out of at the last-16 stage this season. Fabregas urged Eden Hazard, Chelsea’s best player this season, to “prove himself” in the competition and achieve the level of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Fabregas and Hazard are two of the stars of the new group of Chelsea players – along with Oscar, Cesar Azpilicueta and Thibaut Courtois – whom Mourinho has blended with the veterans of his team who won the 2004-05 and 2005-06 Premier League titles.

“Hopefully, it will be the start of a new era, a new team,” said Fabregas at Stamford Bridge on Sunday evening, soon after winning his first Premier League title. “Obviously, we have the likes of John [Terry], Didier [Drogba], Petr Cech, [Branislav] Ivanovic, [John Obi] Mikel, they have all been here seven or eight years or even longer. But, hopefully, the new players now feel this winning mentality can go on for a long time.”

Hazard is 24, Courtois just 22, Azpilicueta 25 and Diego Costa 26 years old, so Fabregas is confident that this team can improve together and try to win their second Champions League next year. “On Monday I will be 28, so I am more at the top than the middle [of the age range],” he said. “But I have always said since the beginning of the season that it is a very young, talented team. That is one of the causes that made me sign for the club, that potentially this team can be one of the best in Europe.”

Terry, at 34, is one of Chelsea’s oldest players but he was just as confident that the team could go on to achieve more in future. “Eden has been exceptional but collectively we learnt a lot last year,” Terry said. “It’s a new group, with new signings in the summer, big signings, like Diego and Cesc. This group of players can go on to win a lot of things for the club.”

After their 2004-05 success, Chelsea retained the Premier League title the following year, and Terry identified a similar drive this time. “You can feel that hunger, like the last time when we won our first one we said, ‘Let’s do it again’,” Terry said. “It’s going to be even tougher next year because four or five sides around us can go and buy some big players in the summer and put some real challenges in. So we’ve got to be back stronger and hungrier next year.”

Chelsea players celebrate winning the Premier League title (Getty Images)

If Chelsea do go on to win more trophies at home and in Europe, it will be on the back of Hazard’s improvement. He has been the best player in England this season and will surely add the Football Writers’ Player of the Year to his Professional Footballers’ Association award. Fabregas, who has played with Messi for Barcelona, is confident that Hazard can join the ranks of the world’s very best.

“Hazard had a fantastic season, I just want for him to do it again next year and to be even better,” Fabregas said. “He is the main guy. In my mind he is the guy that makes this team better than it is. Next year he has to prove himself in the Champions League as well because he is capable of that, and I am sure he will give many big nights of glory to this club.” Asked whether Hazard can be as good as Messi and Ronaldo, Fabregas agreed: “He can be one of those, for sure. He can be up there.”

Fabregas added it was one of the best seasons of his career and praised the influence of Mourinho. “He just loves winning,” Fabregas said. “I’m not just saying other managers I have played under don’t, but he has some edge that goes above anyone else I have ever been with.”

This has also been an excellent season for Terry, who is as playing as well as he ever has done, two years on from not being used by Rafael Benitez at Chelsea as much as he wanted. “He said I couldn’t play two games a week, let alone three, and I’ve played every minute of every Premier League game this season,” Terry said. “I don’t need to stand here and prove him wrong. My football’s done that for my whole career. Even at school it was my mentality to prove people wrong.”