Now only nine players have played more games for Chelsea than César Azpilicueta!

While the focus is obviously on Chelsea’s current situation, performance, and fight for the top-four, and rightly so, we’d be remiss not to pause for a second and acknowledge something a bit longer in the making. Nearly nine years in fact.

Chelsea captain César Azpilicueta made his 411th appearance for the club last night, and as we noted a couple appearances ago, that means he’s now all alone in tenth spot on the all-time appearance list. That’s right, only nine (9!) players in the entire (nearly) 116-year history of the club (birthday coming up in five days!) have pulled on the Chelsea shirt more often than the man we just call Dave.

1. Chopper Harris: 795
2. Peter Bonetti: 729
3. John Terry: 717
4. Frank Lampard: 648
5. John Hollins: 592
6. Petr Čech: 494
7. Dennis Wise: 445
8. Steve Clarke: 421
9. Kerry Dixon: 420
10. César Azpilicueta: 411

It’s the most illustrious company for the right back who was a comparatively unremarkable singing in the wake of Chelsea’s biggest night in 2012, joining the club the same summer as Eden Hazard, Oscar, and several others (including a 16-year-old Andreas Christensen!).

Now Azpi stands in the innermost sanctum of club legends. And he’s not done yet!

G’wan, Dave!