Marc Cucurella has heaped praise on his Chelsea teammate Enzo Fernandez for his performance in the Blues' win over Leicester City at the weekend.
Fernandez returned to the starting line-up for the first time in five Premier League games on Saturday and scored Chelsea's second goal in a hard-fought 2-1 victory.
The Argentine, who captained Enzo Maresca's side on the day, was also named as the Man of the Match for his performance.
Speaking to Chelsea's official website on Monday, Cucurella revealed his delight at seeing his "close friend" Fernandez back in the team and playing well.
"I’m really happy for him," said the Spaniard. "I think he deserves it. He’s a top professional and he’s had a few games when he didn’t start, but he worked hard and he deserved this game. He played really well and this is football."
Like Fernandez, Cucurella has also been dropped to the bench by Maresca on a number of occasions this term, including for Chelsea's 1-1 draw with Manchester United earlier this month.
The defender, however, explained that while sitting on the sidelines can be "difficult," he and his teammates are happy to do so for the good of the team.
"Sometimes you can start on the pitch and sometimes you need to start on the bench, but we are a team, we know what our objectives are and we need to keep going and pushing because if we push we have the talent," he said.
"The manager always decides who is in the team for the best way to plan the game, it doesn’t matter who plays," he added. "We know we have a lot of games, all the players believe we are important."
Maresca delighted with Fernandez
Cucurella isn't the only one who was pleased to see Fernandez play so well against Leicester.
"I think he did very well,” Maresca said of the Argentina international, who joined the Blues from Benfica last summer for a British record fee of £106.8 million, after the match.
The Italian coach went on to explain how he's been trying to help Fernandez adapt his game so that he can score more often, and that he was pleased to him put his advice into practice at the King Power Stadium.
"I’m trying to convince Enzo [to play] in the same way as I did last year with [Wilfried] Ndidi and Kiernan [Dewsbury-Hall], that attacking midfielders need to arrive in the box. The reason why he scored today was because he was inside the box," Maresca, who managed Leicester last season, said.
“If he was outside of the box, he wouldn’t have scored the goal," he added. "We are happy in the way Enzo is doing.”
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