Cesc Fabregas reveals what Mo Salah did that stunned Chelsea dressing room

Cesc Fabregas has revealed how Mohamed Salah has improved since leaving Chelsea, claiming the Liverpool forward needed someone to believe in him.

Salah moved to Stamford Bridge in January 2014, in a transfer worth £11m from Basle. However, despite beating out the Reds to land the highly rated young winger, Chelsea hardly used their signing – with Salah making just 19 appearances in all competitions before leaving on loan.

Chances to shine were few and far between for the man who would go on to become Liverpool's all-time top Premier League goalscorer, with then Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho later describing Salah as being "a kid who couldn't wait".

The Egyptian scored just twice for Chelsea and was shipped off on loan to Fiorentina at the start of 2015. He later made a loan move to Roma permanent, before his return to England with Liverpool in the summer of 2017.

The rest, of course, is history.

Speaking on the BBC podcast Planet Premier League, Salah's old Chelsea teammate Fabregas claimed that the forward has become a better finisher since his ill-fated spell in London.

The former Spain midfielder also revealed how Salah stunned the Blues' dressing room shortly after his loan in Italy.

He said: "He’s a very special talent. I played with him at Chelsea for six months. He is a top guy as well and has a good mentality. I am happy for him. as he is a very, very hard worker. He believed in his talent, went away and found his way. Now he is showing everyone how good he is.

"Maybe it was lack of chances [at Chelsea]. You could see his trends. You could see he was quick. You could see that he was attacking the spaces. But then when he had one against ones, maybe he was not as strong as he is now."

"He was not so prolific in front of goal.

"Players need chances, they need someone to believe in you and he's had that at Liverpool. He had that at Fiorentina where he went on loan for six months to show how good he is.

"I remember a solo goal he did there as soon as he arrived. We were all in the dressing room 'Oh my God did you see Mo's goal? He never did that here!' We were talking like this.

"The confidence of a player can go incredibly high when you feel someone can trust you."

'A bit more patient'

Speaking later in the podcast, Fabregas also equated Salah's early career struggles to the difficulties of Liverpool forward Darwin Nuñez.

He added: "You need to understand that people go through some difficult moments. I could tell you 10,000 players that we felt sometimes, 'Oh, that's not a player'.

"You need your coach, your staff to support you. That's why I always admired Arsene [Wenger]. Sometimes we need to be a little bit more patient than others."