Cesc Fabregas

The 31-year-old has not played for Spain since their 2-0 defeat to Italy in the last 16 of Euro 2016, having been frozen out by former national team head coach Julen Lopetegui.

The departure of Lopetegui two days before their World Cup opener came too late for Fabregas to have any involvement in the tournament, which saw La Roja surprisingly knocked out by hosts Russia in the second round under interim boss Fernando Hierro.

Chelsea moved a step closer to title glory thanks to goals from Diego Costa, Marcos Alonso and Nemanja Matic at Stamford Bridge on Monday.

And when Fabregas set up the Serb for the third goal in a comfortable victory, he became the first player to record at least 10 assists in six different Premier League seasons.

The Spain international began the campaign out of the Chelsea first team and Fabregas acknowledged it was hard to get used to not being an integral part of Antonio Conte's plans.