Kante looks to future, not past glories
N’GOLO KANTE does not feel like the Footballer of the Year when he steps out on to the pitch for Chelsea. As far as the France midfielder is concerned, he is just trying to get better.
Kante played his first Champions League game on Tuesday as Chelsea, after a year away from the competition, opened their campaign with a 6-0 hammering of Azerbaijan outsiders Qarabag.
It was a special moment for Kante, 26, who used to watch the Champions League on the TV back home in France as a child.
He left Leicester last summer after their Premier League title triumph, just as they were about to embark on their first adventure in the competition, because he saw Chelsea as the better long-term bet.
Tuesday’s romp, in which Kante was his usual impeccable self, marked a new step in his career. Last May’s Footballer of the Year award, coming on top of his second Premier League title in a row, was another. But only one of those sticks in his mind.
“We forget that we need to keep improving,” he said. “Last season was amazing for me and the club – but that was the past and we need to focus on the future.
“I don’t feel like the player of the year. I don’t really care about it when I am on the pitch. I try to improve in training and give my best in the game.”
Chelsea face Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on Sunday with the Gunners, who beat them in the FA Cup final last season and in the Community Shield at the start of this, in need of a result again.
“I have spent one year with Antonio Conte, and we know now how we have to play, how we have to work. But people know how we play, so we have to find the solution,” said Kante.
“Arsenal know how we play, but we know how they play. It’s going to be a good fight, and we need to be ready. We need to win.
“In the FA Cup final we were close to winning, but after the red card [for Victor Moses], it was more difficult for us.”
Goals from Pedro, new boys Davide Zappacosta and Tiemoue Bakayoko, plus Cesar Azpilicueta, Michy Batshuayi and an own-goal on Tuesday made it seem as if Chelsea had never been away.
A big plus for Kante has been seeing his former Leicester team-mate Danny Drinkwater, who missed the game with a calf strain, join on deadline day in a £30million deal. He is hoping they can do at Chelsea what they did so remarkably at the King Power Stradium in 2016 together.
“I hope it could be something like Leicester – or even more,” he said. “We had a special year together there, to win the league. It wasn’t expected. I really enjoyed the season I spent with him and I am happy to play with him again.”