Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta is proud to be leading this season's young dressing room.

Azpilicueta knows he must set the right example for the likes of Mason Mount, Reece James, Fikayo Tomori, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Billy Gilmour and Tammy Abraham.

"You feel the responsibility," Azpilicueta told the Daily Mail. "I have played with the past generation who won all those trophies. Football changes and this is a time for change. They have done the first steps.

"They went through the academy and the process of going on loan. They trained hard and did well but it is different to going into the first team, to have an impact and be consistent. You're not going to have a clear path. There will be bumps and you have to take them and be stronger for the next one.

"It is important to have confidence in them. Our future is bright. They won trophies with the academy. Most of them won the FA Youth Cup. Now we will see if they can replicate these trophies with the first team. They have the opportunity to go to Wembley and fight for the FA Cup as a senior.

"At Chelsea we fight to be at the top. It is important to develop players who were not in the Premier League last season. They have played in the Champions League but we know there is a gap of more than 30 points to Liverpool and that means we can be better.

"It's up to us to close that. We can do it by being humble and accepting when we don't do it well we must train harder to make it right."