Toni Rudiger has spoken exclusively to the matchday programme for Saturday’s game against Burnley, which features a special cover to mark Remembrance Day.

Rudiger was in reflective mood as he spoke about being a leader in the dressing room and how he learned from the ‘warrior spirit’ he saw in his fellow defenders when he first joined the club.

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‘Let’s put it like this: I like to help people off the pitch, to speak to younger players, for example, to help them and advise them,’ he told the programme about his senior role in the squad. ‘But on the pitch, it just comes naturally.

‘I’ve been like this from the start because, level-wise, I didn’t play at centre-back with big personalities – they were good players, but not big personalities, I would say. They were doing their job and that’s it.

‘Then, when I came here, I learned from people like David Luiz and Gary Cahill, even Cesc Fabregas, who is someone that leads by example – he’s not the guy who talks a lot, but he leads by example.

‘I would say David Luiz and Gary Cahill have been my biggest influences. Gary Cahill was more the quiet one, but a guy who always leaves everything on the pitch. For me, he was exceptional. Off the pitch, he was a very good guy and not someone who would be there at the start of the game shouting, shouting, shouting… no, no… but out on the pitch he was a warrior, the same as David Luiz. These two players were very, very important for me.’

There’s also an interview with another popular defender who loved to roam forward with the ball at his feet as David Lee tells the programme all about his time at Stamford Bridge. Lee saw a transformation between the late-1980s and his departure in the late-1990s and he talks us through his two Chelsea nicknames, ‘Rodders’ and ‘Horse’.

Club historian Rick Glanvill’s look at the club’s greatest youth products shines the spotlight on Mike Fillery, who was billed as the new Ray Wilkins in his time as a youngster here, while we continue our retrospective feature looking back on the historic 2011/12 campaign.

There’s plenty more – including all the usual columns from Thomas Tuchel, Cesar Azpilicueta and Emma Hayes.

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