Cesar Azpilicueta believes the Chelsea squad must show spirit and desire to win the Premier League title again next season after admitting the Blues deserved to be the ones forming a guard of honour for champions Leicester on Sunday.
Chelsea, last season's winners, congratulated former manager Claudio Ranieri and his team for securing their first-ever top-flight trophy with a guard of honour before the Blues' final match of the campaign at Stamford Bridge.
In contract to Leicester's fine season, Chelsea failed to put up an adequate defence of their title after struggling to recover from their disastrous start, which saw the team lose eight games before mid-December.
Azpilicueta thinks the Blues deserved to be the ones handing out, rather than receiving, the congratulations on Sunday but urged his teammates to show the same spirit and determination that helped Chelsea win the title in 2015 next term.
"We deserved this but we want to be on the other side and we have to fight to be there next season. We know it is going to be tough but we have to show the spirit to do it again," the Spaniard told Chelsea's official website.
"When you win trophies and when you win games, it is easy to find the support but this season, even if we weren’t getting the results, if we only won a few games at home, they [the fans] always supported us home and away.
"They were always behind us and this is the real support and we have to give back winning trophies as soon as possible.
"The next chance we have is next season and in a few months we will be back here trying to win trophies for them."
