Ahead of Sunday’s cup final against Manchester City, Chelsea star Ross Barkley has explained he joined the club to be a part of big games like this.
The reason why I came to the club is to win trophies and help the club continue with the success and we’ve got a big game, but we’re all looking forward to it,’ explained the midfielder, who is hoping to make up for lost time after being restricted to a cameo role in last season’s triumphant FA Cup campaign, as he recovered from injury.
‘I was part of it so I got the feeling of a winning atmosphere and a winning squad, seeing before the game the way the lads prepared for the game in training and then the feeling after the game, how good that is, so it gave me the hunger to want to achieve success at this club. But last season I didn’t really play much part in winning the trophy so I see this as my chance to win my first trophy at the club.’
‘It was disappointing the other week against City but no two games are the same and we’re looking forward to it and I’m sure there’ll be a different result.
‘It starts on the training pitch, it starts in the mind. We’ve all been fully focused in training and we’ll go with a plan and hopefully it pays off.’
With each individual, everyone takes instructions in a different way, but we’re all top-class players and we all want to learn more, so with the manager we’re learning on a day-to-day basis.
‘If you compare Pep Guardiola’s first season, they went though a bit of an up and down spell. I remember when I was at Everton we beat Manchester City at Goodison 4-0. The Premier League’s got the most competition in the world. There’re teams all over the table that can hurt you if you have an off day. It’s just more repetition and training and the results will come through with more games.’
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