Cesc interview with BBC
Best player played with
"It is obviously Lionel Messi. I played with him since I was 13. Definitely his talent is incomparable to anything I have seen in my life.
"Apart from the talent, for me he is such a competitor. I could not compare him to anyone. For me he is the best ever.
"He always wants to win. Even now in training if he loses a game of five versus five he will hate it."
Best player played against
"If I have to say one - and I really enjoyed playing against - I would say Steven Gerrard.
"He was physically the most difficult opponent to handle. He was the box-to-box player, he could be on his right or left, shooting from the outside of his boot. He was a machine."
Best manager played under
"I played under some of the best managers - not just in recent times but in history.
"If I have to pick one or two: Pep Guardiola played the game in the style I love at Barcelona, same with Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, but under Jose Mourinho at Chelsea I had a really special year. He is probably the one I had the best connection with. The way he played with my mind was unbelievable.
"I would pick Guardiola, Mourinho and Wenger because I owe them all so much."
Favourite game played in
"When I was at Arsenal and we
beat Barcelona 2-1 in the Champions League at the Emirates in 2011. I think we played sensational in that game.
"Obviously I am talking about the game because after that we lost at the Camp Nou and didn't go through but, in terms of that night, when you ask me about the favourite game, probably that one. "
Funniest moment
"When Conte first came to Chelsea I didn't really play the first three months. He made it clear he wanted a different type of midfielder. Nemanja Matic was playing, I had an injury as well and I didn't really play the whole season.
"But we went to Manchester City, we had won seven games and Conte says to me: 'You have to play.' We won 3-1, I played well and gave the assist to Costa for 1-1. It felt like I had made a point to the coach that he could count on me.
"But next we played West Brom, Matic recovers and he starts. It was a typical game and for 70 minutes it was 0-0. They were defending well. The game was calling for someone like me to come on to open the door or do something but the minutes went by and nothing. I remember Costa coming to the touchline and shouting at Conte, saying: 'Put Cesc on!'
"Conte is not the manager you mess with this and he was pretending not to listen to Costa. Two minutes later he says 'Cesc come', and two minutes after I come on and I provided the assist for Costa to score."
Craziest team-mate
"It is between Costa and Gerard Pique.
"Gerard I have played with since I was 10 years old. He hasn't changed much but now he is a business man and the image he has is completely different.
"He used to do crazy things all the time. One day he burst the tyres on the car of our goalkeeper. The guy went home and halfway back he was stuck on the motorway. He has to be in my top two."