As Chelsea take on Real Madrid in their Champions League semi-final first-leg today, one player who is sure of featuring for the west London club is Cesar Azpilicueta.

Thomas Tuchel says that he always wants his captain to be on the pitch, and he proved that by putting him at right wing back at the weekend just to keep him there.

‘He is everything Chelsea means’, is how Tuchel described him on the Chelsea website this week, which really is top plaudits from the coach.

“He’s fantastic and I want him absolutely to be on the pitch because he’s a fantastic captain and a fantastic sportsman,’ he continued.

“He is everything Chelsea means in my point of view – he’s humble, he’s a fighter, he thinks constantly about winning and he does everything to be in shape every three days. He’s a true professional and there is no work too hard or distance too long for him.

“We used him as a wing-back and it was a bit hard because he had to do several long runs. It was a bit different for him but we chose the back three with Andreas, Toni and Thiago because we knew about West Ham’s strength in set-pieces and we wanted to gain some centimetres in height.

“Azpi is totally open to anything once he sees the reason why. He was very excited to be involved a bit more offensively and it’s nice to have this. The two positions [wing-back and full-back] suit him very well and he’s absolutely reliable.”