The Best of Juan Mata on Friday Night Live

Fresh off his Player of the Year award, everyone's favorite little bundle of creativity, Juan Mata stopped by the Chelsea TV studios Friday night to field a few questions from the fans. Done as a special edition of their regular Friday Night Live show, the fans asked questions via twitter, which were (presumably filtered/screened) then communicated through the medium of Gigi Salmon.

Of course, the club's official TV channel is not likely to throw any player under the bus (see: Torres, Fernando - around February-ish, I believe it was) and so most of the time this segment becomes one big giant puff piece with an endless stream of boring, soft questions thrown out...but Matinha did manage to provide a few choice quips that caught the eye, including a glimpse into squad dynamics, the Manager, and Lucas Piazon.

Hit the jump to see some of the more interesting ones, as transcribed by the official Chelsea Tweety-Bird. The full hour of Friday Night Live replays twice today (Saturday) and once more tomorrow morning before the match.

On winning the FA Cup...important not just on a professional, but a personal level - it was Mata's first top-flight club trophy:

On the still interim manager Roberto Di Matteo...Mata joins others who have mentioned how much they appreciate RDM taking the time to talk to them individually and to bring passion and enthusiasm to the table. This is as good an endorsement as Di Matteo has had so far to win the job for next year:

The common conception (at least my conception of the common conception) is that Juan Mata's best buddy on the team is Fernando Torres, but it really seems like that honor goes to Oriol Romeu, with whom he even has a friendly table tennis competition! Like a brother! Mata also mentions Ramires and David Luiz fondly and often, but that's hardly surprising - who wouldn't love those two!?

Lastly, Matinha seems fairly confident that Lucas Piazon has a bright (Chelsea, implied) future. If Mata says, it must be so!