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If I don't get the service or if I don't the ball in the box, where I want it, I start drifting into midfield. I go and look for the ball. I try to be important for the team in other areas.

A couple of games, I played up front when Diego Costa was not there. We know to create movement - not even to get the ball, but create space for others. Now I understand football is not always with the ball at my feet.

It is a pleasure to play under Jose Mourinho, and everything is OK. I learn every day. He is a normal coach. He speaks a lot with the players. I like it when the manager speaks a lot with you because it gives you confidence.

As I've got older, I've become more intrigued about formations, tactics, I listen a lot more to the manager's team talk; as a kid, if I'm honest, I never listened.

I was the classic midfield organiser who could also score goals.

I spend the entire 90 minutes looking for space on the pitch. I'm always between the opposition's two holding midfielders and thinking, 'The defence is here, so I get the ball and I go there to where the space is.'

I like it when I am in the middle; I am closer to the ball. The manager wants me to pass, to make assists, create chances, and I do more because I think the position is more central, and I don't ask all the time for the ball at my feet.

I had a hard time at Chelsea mainly because I was injured much of the time. Every time I recovered from one injury I seemed to get a new one and it set me back again.

There were probably a few games I played where I should not have played, because of some nagging injuries or something. I used to always talk the managers into playing me, because I wanted to play so badly.

Training's completely different now. It used to be a lot of running and work without the ball. Now it's all with the ball, which any player loves.