Cesc Fabregas has said that he will "forever be grateful" to Arsenal and Arsene Wenger for the role they played in shaping his career.
Fabregas moved to the Gunners in 2003 at the age of just 16 and quickly broke into the first team at Highbury, going on to be named captain at 21 and make more than 300 appearances for the club before returning to Barcelona in 2011.
Wenger turned down the option to re-sign the Spain international in 2014, with Fabregas instead moving to Chelsea, but he insists that he has only good things to say about his former club.
"Yes, forever.
There's something that will never change. There's many things said about me, about Arsenal. I don't really care what people think about me any more. It's just about what I feel towards them," he told reporters.
"Arsenal will always be the team that believed in me the most. I was a young kid, 16 years old, playing for Barcelona. Arsene Wenger, especially, and Arsenal Football Club, gave me everything.
"Without them I would not be a World Cup winner, a European Championship winner. And I would not have experienced all of this that I'm doing in my life. I will always forever be grateful."
Chelsea will host Arsenal in the Premier League on Saturday looking to move 12 points clear of their London rivals.
Arsene Wenger has thrown his backing behind Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and 19-year-old Ainsley Maitland-Niles to solve his midfield crisis at Chelsea.
Wenger goes into Saturday’s game at Stamford Bridge with Arsenal’s title hopes on the line and Francis Coquelin his only available senior central midfielder.
Aaron Ramsey limped off with a calf strain in Tuesday’s shock home defeat by Watford, Granit Xhaka is suspended and Mohammed Elneny, carrying another injury, is still at the Africa Cup of Nations with Egypt.
Santi Cazorla is a long-term absentee.
So Wenger is forced to find alternatives. Oxlade-Chamberlain, usually a winger, is likely to start in a game where Arsenal must cut the nine-point gap at the top.
Another option identified by Wenger is Maitland-Niles, who spent much of last season as a right back for Ipswich in the Championship.
Up against Antonio Conte’s well-drilled Premier League leaders, the Frenchman’s midfield looks a weak link but he has been impressed with his double-barrelled duo in the central roles of late.
‘Ainsley Maitland-Niles has played a lot on the flanks but I’ve seen qualities in him that tell me he can be useful in the middle and he can also be a defensive specialist,’ Wenger said.
So Wenger is forced to find alternatives. Oxlade-Chamberlain, usually a winger, is likely to start in a game where Arsenal must cut the nine-point gap at the top.
Another option identified by Wenger is Maitland-Niles, who spent much of last season as a right back for Ipswich in the Championship.
Up against Antonio Conte’s well-drilled Premier League leaders, the Frenchman’s midfield looks a weak link but he has been impressed with his double-barrelled duo in the central roles of late.
‘Ainsley Maitland-Niles has played a lot on the flanks but I’ve seen qualities in him that tell me he can be useful in the middle and he can also be a defensive specialist,’ Wenger said.
Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has refused to rule Arsenal out of the Premier League title race, describing them as a "great team".
The Blues currently top the league table on 56 points, nine above Tottenham Hotspur and the Gunners, who they face at Stamford Bridge on Saturday afternoon.
Despite his side being favourites for the trophy, Conte isn't underestimating Arsenal, to whom they lost 3-0 in the corresponding fixture at the Emirates Stadium earlier this term.
"For sure we face another great team, because Arsenal can fight for the title," Conte told reporters.
"Don't forget in the previous game we lost 3-0 away.
This could be a good chance for us to show that now we are a totally different team if you compare to the previous game.
"It will be another tough game, but we play at home, and this is very important.
This week is very important for us, and we want to finish this week in the right way by preparing very well for this Arsenal game."
Chelsea last won the title in 2014-15, while Arsene Wenger's side last picked up the league trophy in 2003-04.
Petr Cech has admitted that his side's 2-1 defeat at the hands of Watford last night was a "huge setback" to their title hopes.
The Gunners found themselves two goals down inside 15 minutes at the Emirates Stadium - a deficit they were unable to recover despite Alex Iwobi pulling one back for the hosts in the second half.
The result sees Arsenal slip down to third in the Premier League table, now nine points adrift of Chelsea, and Cech acknowledged that his side were punished for a lacklustre start to the match.
"This was a huge setback because this was the game we wanted to win. We wanted to put ourselves in a better position going into the weekend.
I always say that at this level you cannot play 80 minutes, or 85. You have to play 90 minutes with full concentration and everybody on top of their game," he told Arsenal Player.
"We were second best in the first half. We made so many bad passes, we lost every challenge, we were simply second best, as I said. In the second half we improved, we had a lot of chances. I thought we were brilliant second half, but obviously we only scored one goal.
"We had a very bad start. We were unlucky with the first goal when it takes a big deflection and it goes in. Obviously it gave a lot of hope and motivation to Watford's side because this was something that lifted them up.
"But then I think we didn't play well at all. It was too much for us to take in the first half and it's very hard to say why because we were prepared.
We were on back-to-back wins, important wins, we had the momentum after the Burnley game and obviously the Southampton game went completely our way, exactly the way we wanted."
Arsenal face league leaders Chelsea on Sunday looking to cut the gap at the top of the table back to six points.
