I've always been a city person - London boy - and New York is just incredible. It has what London has but almost more in terms of variety, culture, social life, everything. I just like walking the streets and feeling the energy and the vibe.

The advantage does lie with us because we're at home and if we can't motivate ourselves for this match then we can't motivate ourselves for any match. I think the crowd will be up for it as well.

I'm a very private person, and you have a lot of people looking into your personal life, away from football. That's the one thing that I don't like, but I always remember how lucky we are that we're playing football.

I have a lot of good football talk with cabbies, but when you want to get somewhere in a hurry, it can be distracting. I always know they're going to want to talk football if 'Talksport' is on the radio.

But what club wouldn't welcome the chance to strengthen their side, what club would turn down the resources Chelsea have?

Footballers do get a hard time, and there is a lot of generalization going on. When you get to meet players and know them as lads, it's always a bit different.

There's so many kids out there and it's such a cut-throat world. I've seen a lot of my mates, you know, who are better players than me at a certain age, and they're not in football now.