Robert Pires won the Premier League twice and was a Champions League runner-up during six successful seasons with Arsenal. In an exclusive interview with bwin, the 45-year-old Frenchman shares his thoughts on the Gunners’ top-flight rivals as well as topics across Europe. Pires exclusively revealed the reason why he watches Chelsea games.
“I think Hazard is the best player in the Premier League and he fits the profile of what Real Madrid are looking for. I’ve seen talk about maybe [Virgil] Van Dijk winning Premier League Player of the Year, but there should only be one winner and his name is Eden Hazard. I watch Chelsea matches just because I want to watch Hazard play.” “Chelsea are very lucky to have Hazard and he can do things that no other player in the world can do. You look at his penalty in the Carabao Cup and who else would even try that against Ederson in that situation? The problem is that Hazard isn’t able to win the trophies his talent deserves at Chelsea so Real Madrid are a very attractive proposition.”
He also talks about his fellow countryman N’golo Kante who has been used in a different position by italian boss Maurizio Sarri.
“Kante is the best defensive midfielder in the world, but he is being asked to play further forward by Sarri at Chelsea this season. I think this is a very obvious mistake and when you have the best player in the world in their position, you play them in that position.” “However, I’m not the manager and Sarri is determined to play Jorginho because he wants a creative foundation that Kante can’t guarantee at the base of midfield. This decision and if Sarri shows any flexibility may decide whether Chelsea finish in the top four or not.”
Pires also talks about the situation between Sarri and Kepa Arrizabalaga during the Carabao Cup final against Manchester City.
“It was a very strange situation with Sarri and Kepa at Wembley. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that happen before. It was perhaps a misunderstanding, but it was very poorly handled and would have definitely been on the players’ minds when they were heading for penalties. We’ll never know how much it impacted them, but it also took attention away from a much-improved performance by Chelsea.” “It’s very important to respect the manager’s decision, even if we sometimes don’t agree with it as a player. We need to show respect and support our team-mates too otherwise the dressing room can be a very difficult place.”
“Sarri is in a difficult situation where he needs to get positive results to save his job. He might have reacted differently and more severely if he was more comfortable in his own future at Chelsea. I expect Kepa to continue as the club’s first-choice goalkeeper and his career will carry on as though it never happened. He can consider himself lucky, but it reveals a lot about the player power in the Chelsea dressing room that he felt he could do that at Wembley. I expect Sarri to still be at the club until the end of the season and then they will decide.”

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