On the August 24 in 2012, Chelsea completed the signing of Marseille right-back Cesar Azpilicueta for £7million.

Not well known at the time, the young Spaniard may have been signed to play as a back-up to Branislav Ivanovic, and to start with this was the case. Under Roberto Di Matteo he rarely made the team, only being played in the Capital One Cup.

When Di Matteo was sacked, Azpilicueta’s fellow countryman, Rafael Benitez was installed as interim first team manager. This was the moment that Azpilicueta got his opportunity to make the right-back spot his, and that is what he did. It’s hard to think of a bad game Azpilicueta had during that spell, keeping the likes of Gareth Bale quiet against Tottenham at Stamford Bridge.

His string of excellent performances led to a call-up to his national side, and played the entire 90 minutes on his debut against Uruguay in a 3-1 victory.

At the start of this season, Azpilicueta once again found himself struggling to get into the starting eleven under new boss Jose Mourinho. He returned late to pre-season training after the Confederations Cup and Mourinho preferred to use Ivanovic at right-back.

After an injury to Ashley Cole, the Chelsea manager chose Azpilicueta over Ryan Bertrand to play in the back four. In his unnatural position, Azpilicueta has as to this moment, has never had a bad game, to my knowledge. Now Mourinho considers him as the first choice on the left side of defence, leaving Ashley Cole to sit on the bench. Who would have thought that would happen at the start of the season?

Cesar Azpilicueta is certainly a mouthful, to which extent the fans have given him the knickname “Dave”. He is certainly a fan favourite and the blues supporters constantly chant during games, “Azpilicueta, we'll just call you Dave”.

It would be very surprising to me if Azpilicueta wasn’t selected in the Spain squad for the World Cup. A versatile defender who is full of running, Del Bosque would be silly to pick Alvaro Arbeloa over him.

Pablo Zabaleta may be considered by many as the best right-back in the Premier League, but in my opinion, Azpilicueta is better defensively. If he can improve his play going forward, Azpilicueta will be considered as one of the best full-backs in the world, not just by Chelsea fans.

The problem he has now is he is the best right and left-back at the club, but Ivanovic is performing better than Cole so Azpilicueta will be on the left for the foreseeable future. If Luke Shaw is signed in the summer, you would expect him to move to his preferred position, but nobody knows with Mourinho.

http://www.givemesport.com/427412-cesar-azpilicueta-chelseas-unsung-hero

How about you stop starting it, too?

Looks like he got a start in Spain's most recent game, and 90 minutes too (as RB). I think he's going to be a starter for them in the World Cup if he keeps performing like he is currently.

I think Spain's RB should be contested between Juanfran and Montoya, and their LB spot should be contested between Moreno and Azpilicueta. If it were up to me, I'd choose Juanfran and Azpilicueta as the two Spanish wing-backs, with Moreno and Montoya (and maybe Carvajal too) in the squad, but not starters.

Montoya ?? Not good enough, Carvajal is way better.
I think it will depend on the rival, Alba is more fast and attack well and Azpi is more physical and defend better...
Azpi against Brazil for example and Alba against defensive nations, Italy for example.

Alba and Azpilicueta are the 2 obvious choices for Spain's starting XI. There are no better RB and LB atm.

@Tiki

Well, I guess it depends on Del Bosque's tactics.

It's interesting how we find the RB on each others' team to be better. xD
But yeah, Carvajal and Montoya are a close tie, and Del Bosque has his pick over the two of them. Arbeloa is too poor defensively, and is only a mediocre player. Not good enough for the national team.

Alba is fast, very fast, but that's his only strength. He's too poor defensively, and is only good for attacking (let's not get ahead of ourselves, he's a LM, not a proper LB). Alba fits in with the Barcelona style of play, but Abidal was even better because he could attack and defend with equal skill. Which is why I believe Azpilicueta or Moreno should be given the LB spot for Spain (Azpi is better than Moreno for me).

Yeah its interesting, Montoya dont seem confident, everytime he plays, we struggle.

Actually Alba was bought by Barcelona because he fitted well in the national team, not the opposite. His Euro 2012 was something, but form is very important, im sure Del Bosque wont commit mistakes in his choices.

At least he can play when Spain need to comeback in the scoreline, Ancelotti replaced Coentrao by Marcelo when RM were losing 2-1 in the derby and it changed everything, they were going to concede a 3rd goal and instead, an attacking LB gave them more presence in the other side, and made Ronaldo score an important goal for the race of the title.

All this to say that you must have an attacking LB/RB at least in the squad even if he is benched.

@Tiki

I see your point. Although I do think that Marcelo made a difference, the real game-changer was Isco. The moment he was brought on, we started playing so much better. He was also the man who got the second-assist to Ronaldo's goal (he set up Carvajal, who set up Ronaldo).

I don't really want to add more to this thread because I feel it's dead now, but Azpi really deserves more praise after yesterday's game.

This is from an article praising both Matic and Azpi, and how they both have greatly improved our defense, but I'm only going to include the Azpi part. For the full article (which is pretty interesting for a Chelsea fan), check the link below.

So too is Spain full back Azpilicueta.

The man they call ‘Dave’ is comfortably the best left-back in the Premier League at the moment, and he’s not even left-footed.

After the 4-0 thumping of Tottenham, Mourinho was purring about the defender who is keeping England centurion Ashley Cole out of the Chelsea side.

‘I think in this moment, Azpilicueta is unbeatable,’ the Portuguese manager said. ‘For many matches I didn't see one player beat Azpilicueta in an individual duel.’

And he’s right. Kyle Walker and Kyle Naughton possess pace and power, and often Azpilicueta was left to deal with the pair of them when the free-roaming Hazard or Schurrle were further upfield.

But Azpilicueta was unfazed, unflappable. If Walker got a yard on him, he’d battle back to block the cross. When Naughton ran at him, he stood firm and won the ball. He barely gave an inch.

And why would he? With respect to Walker and Naughton, he’s kept better players at bay than those two.
Jesus Navas and Pablo Zabaleta were banging on his door when Chelsea toppled Manchester City at the Etihad, but the 24-year-old didn’t buckle. He thrived under the weight of City’s relentless attack and, in the end, Chelsea went back to London with all three points and a clean sheet.

Azpilicueta has become a key member of the tightest defence in the Barclays Premier League alongside Terry, Cahill and Branislav Ivanovic. Mourinho’s frugal back four have only conceded 22 times this season.

This pair (Matic and Azpi) might not score you many goals, but it’s pretty damn tricky for the opposition to get one for themselves when Matic and Azpilicueta are on the pitch.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2576655/Forget-Eden-Hazard-Nemanja-Matic-machine-Cezar-Azpilicueta-unsung-heroes.html