Cesc Fabregas beat Willian and Pedro in Chelsea speed test using intelligence

Cesc Fabregas is a bona fide Premier League legend.

With both Arsenal and Chelsea, the Spanish midfielder was electric and is currently second in the division’s all-time assist chart with 118 – behind only Ryan Giggs.

At Arsenal, Fabregas was more of an attack-minded midfielder who scored goals for fun, while at Chelsea he was more of a deep-lying playmaker that dictated the tempo of games.

The former Barcelona man excelled in both roles and much of his success in them was down to his supreme footballing intelligence.

Few players to have graced the Premier League have read the game better than Fabregas, who was capable of dismantling a team with one swing of his right boot.

It’s speed of thought that often beats speed of feet in professional football, as Fabregas himself proved during a training drill at Chelsea a few years back.

Now, in a drill that measured speed and agility, you’d think Willian and Pedro – two wingers renowned for being quick – would walk all over Fabregas, right?

Well, you’d be wrong.

The drill required each player to pick up cones and place them on a pole, the quickest to collect them all was declared the winner, pretty simple.

So Fabregas decided to collect the cones in an order which meant that he didn’t have to change direction drastically or cover ground unnecessarily – which, of course, saved him valuable time.

When Cesc Fabregas proved that intelligence beats speed