Ashley Cole must be looking on in horror as he finds his place on the bench, formerly warmed by Cesar Azpilicueta.

Chelsea fans have been enthusing about him recently, and many hope that after his display against Italy this week, he'll be seriously considered for Vicente Del Bosque's Spain squad for Brazil, and to be honest, why not?

He's the blue dubbed as 'Dave' by his team-mates, as sadly, although they may be celebrating his recent performances, they can't actually pronounce his name.

Against Tottenham this weekend, Azpilicueta put in a majestic performance, and enough of these against big sides will hopefully earn him a place in La Furia Roja come the summer, which I'm sure is on his mind right now.

It's easy to say that Chelsea's heroes this season are players like Andre Schurrle who I'm a personal fan of, then the Belgian Eden Hazard who's been as cool and calm as ever this season whether he's executing a perfect rabona to Fernando Torres or casually scoring hat-tricks against Alan Pardew's Newcastle.

Yes, Hazard is a player that can win Chelsea a game. Equally though, down his flank he's also got a friend in our little Spaniard Azpilicueta, who against Tottenham made 40 passes, with a success rate of 85%. You may be thinking; 'that's not impressive, but funnily enough his pass rate was the exact same as Hazard's in that match. God I love Squawka.

Dave not being a natural left-back nor left-footed, has managed to keep out a natural left-back and left-footed Ashley Cole, now that's some feat isn't it?

Mourinho has gone as far as to say to the Daily Mail; '‘I think in this moment, Azpilicueta is unbeatable. For many matches I didn’t see one player beat Azpilicueta in an individual duel."

Mourinho has purred even more about the Spanish sensation, he's made pretty bold claims as well. To the Metro, he boldly stated: "I think a team with 11 Azpilicuetas could probably win the competition.

"Football is not just about pure talent. Football is also about character and personality, and Azpilicueta has all the traces of that winning personality."

Me being of Spanish origin, I hope Dave can keep up this run of great performances until the end of the season. Spain need a competent right-back, and with Arsenal's Nacho Monreal and Barcelona's Jordi Alba filling up the left side, I think Azpilicueta can keep a place in La Roja for himself.

I mean, it's not as if Alvaro Arbeloa can challenge him.

In a team full of club legends such as John Terry and future world class players such as Eden Hazard, it’s easy for other players at the club to go under the radar.

In this case it has been Cesar Azpilicueta, who has been excellent this season and without a doubt has become Chelsea’s unsung hero.

With Azpilicueta barely featuring in any of the Blues’ games earlier in the season it surely looked like he would only be a bit part player at the club and mainly used as cover for the more regular Branislav Ivanovic, similar to his short time when Roberto Di Matteo was manager.

However months later Azpilicueta now finds himself as a vital part of Chelsea’s defence.

Rather than jumping ahead of Branislav Ivanovic in the pecking order though, Jose Mourinho has opted to shuffle Azpilicueta over to the left-back position which has ultimately seen Ashley Cole drop to the bench.

A season ago this scenario wasn’t even imaginable, but considering how well Azpilicueta has been playing as a whole of late I don’t think anyone would call for change amongst the back four.

Azpilicueta’s contributions have aided Chelsea both in defence and attack. Whilst he is a good tackler with much pace he is still very disciplined. He stays back when Chelsea are on the attack allowing Ivanovic to bomb forward which could easily be seen when the Serbian scored the only goal at the Etihad which saw Manchester City lose at home for the first time this season.

It did take time and the opportunity which arose after Ashley Cole got injured before Chelsea’s Champions League clash against Schalke was unexpected considering Ryan Bertrand was normally cover for Cole. However Azpilicueta took his chance and followed on with a serial amount of impressive performances which I am sure will see him head to Brazil with the Spain national team.

With Chelsea only conceding 21 goals this Premier League season so far and keeping seven clean sheets in their last 10 league games Jose Mourinho has certainly forged a solid and well equipped defence. Cesar Azpilicueta has certainly played a big part in this and furthermore deserves a bit more of the plaudits.

When Jose Mourinho returned to Chelsea, few expected him to keep César Azpilicueta. The right-back had only demonstrated his worth for Chelsea in occasional flashes, and, behind Branislav Ivanović in the pecking order, things were looking gloomy for the young Spaniard.

Fast forward several months, and nobody could have predicted how things would turn out for Azpilicueta. He is now one of the most established players in Mourinho’s new-look Chelsea side, having started 17 Premier League games this season, and has become a key part of the team. Instead of playing in his favoured position on the right-hand side of defence however, Azpilicueta has succeeded in displacing the stagnating Ashley Cole at left-back, and has adapted seamlessly to this new role. So much so, in fact, that he is now a Mourinho favourite.

In an interview last month, the Portuguese manager described how ’11 Azpilicuetas would probably win [the Champions League] because football is not just about pure talent, football is also about character and personality, and Azpilicueta has all the traces of that winning personality’. High praise indeed.

Above all, Azpilicueta is a team player, and Mourinho has taken a shine to him for precisely this reason. Some have compared his situation to that of Álvaro Arbeloa, who, despite not being the most flashy of right-backs, was largely consistent during Mourinho’s tenure at Real Madrid, and consequently became one of the manager’s favourites. However, comparing Azpilicueta to Arbeloa is futile. It is true that Arbeloa occasionally played at left-back for Madrid, but that is about as far as the comparisons go. The Chelsea full-back offers much more in terms of attack, and arguably more in defence as well.

Azpilicueta has sometimes been criticised for this feature of his game, but it seems that his defending is improving at left-back, where he has rarely been caught out this season, making an average of 3.6 tackles every Premier League game. Attacking remains one of Azpilicueta’s key strengths, but it is disappointing to see that the 24-year old has yet to register a single goal or assist this season in the league. On the other hand, it could be interpreted as a sign that Azpilicueta is adapting to his role as a team player. He has tended to stay back this season, preferring to leave the marauding to fellow full-back Ivanović. The signs point to Azpilicueta maturing and becoming a more complete player under Mourinho’s tutelage.

Right-back has become a problem position for Spain recently, with Arbeloa declining and seemingly out-of-favour at Madrid, and so there is every chance that Azpilicueta could be called up for La Roja ahead of the World Cup if he keeps up his current form. Del Bosque is assessing his options at right-back in the run-up to the tournament, demonstrated in the way that he decided to play Azpilicueta against Italy on Wednesday. The Chelsea full-back was outstanding, and the likelihood is that Arbeloa is now an outside bet to make the Spain squad after Azpilicueta’s performance. He faces stiff competition from the impressive Atlético right-back Juanfran to cement a place in the squad, but if he continues to mature in the way he has done over the last few months at Chelsea, a call from Vicente Del Bosque is highly likely.

César Azpilicueta has been one of Chelsea’s unsung heroes this season. While he may not be the long-term solution to replacing Ashley Cole (Mourinho seems to be interested in signing Luke Shaw), it will be interesting to see whether he is moved back to his more familiar position in the future, or whether Mourinho sees his future at left-back . From looking as if he might be offloaded at the beginning of the season to becoming a key player, Azpilicueta is simply making the most of each opportunity.