N’Golo Kante: It’s always special to play against Leicester

N’Golo Kante’s left-footed strike at Leicester City on Saturday will undoubtedly be regarded as one of his best goals scored for Chelsea. The fact that it came against his former club only added to its significance. As the shot bent into the corner of the net, Chelsea had gained complete control of the match, taking a 2-0 lead well before the opening half hour. Antonio Rudiger in the first half and Christian Pulisic in the second half scored the other goals of the day, as the Blues maintained their grip at the top of the Premier League

“It was a good goal and I’m happy with that,” said the midfielder, as per the club’s website. “I anticipated the pass of Reece. When he gave me the ball I had space in front of me. I tried to run at the defenders and look for the pass, but it was open for the shot, so I shot. It’s always special to play against Leicester. It was an important game for us after the international break to come back with a win. We started the game very well, and I was happy to score and with the performance of the team.”

Kante: It’s still early in the season

Chelsea kept another clean sheet, as the Blues continue to make life difficult for opponents to play against them. The 3-0 triumph was Chelsea’s ninth in 12 league games, which keeps them at the top of the table ahead of next weekend’s pulsating meeting with Manchester United. Despite the good run of results, Kante is not getting ahead of himself in his assessment of title prospects.

“The season is long. We are still in the first period of the season. We look to win games week after week, that’s the way. We don’t know what will happen, it’s still early in the season, but we are in a good way and we need to carry on,” he added.

“We need to work match after match if we are to achieve great things at the end of the season. The Premier League is very competitive so we have to keep going and keep working hard,” he explained.

Tuchel on wing-backs

After the emphatic victory, Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel explained the thinking behind giving wing-backs Ben Chilwell and Reece James attacking freedom. “We know, the whole team, me included, the places we can take risks and adapt our positions. Not to go full over-confident, not to do crazy stuff, but to have a bit of wild momentum and a bit of freedom in our attacking movements. I think the wing-back positions can also adapt their positions to half-positions and to support our attackers,” he added.

“I think it’s a matter of repetition, a matter of understanding with each other, and at the moment they do very good, no matter who plays. Azpi has had fantastic matches in this position and also Marcos Alonso, today it was Reecey and Chilly. We want to be dangerous from certain spaces and to accelerate the game in certain spaces so they are allowed to do it.”