N'Golo Kante is hoping that his injury problems are behind him after scoring in Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat at Manchester City on Saturday.
The France midfielder has made just six appearances in the Premier League this season after encountering a series of setbacks from a summer knee injury.
However, after playing 90 minutes in Chelsea’s last two games, and featuring for his country during the international break, Kante is now keen to press on for the rest of the campaign.
"I feel fine,” said Kante at the Etihad Stadium. “I have a good feeling on the pitch. I went to the national team and it was good for me. I hope the difficulties have ended and I can keep giving my best for the team.”
Kante opened the scoring at the Etihad before goals from Kevin De Bruyne and Riyad Mahrez earned City the points to leave Chelsea on a run of five successive defeats against ‘Big Six’ opponents.
Though the Blues have been competitive in all of those matches, Kante believes Frank Lampard’s side need to show greater belief to turn losses into wins.
"We are a little bit disappointed," he added. "We wanted to come for the win to keep our run going and to stay second in the table. I think it was a difficult game and we know City are a good team. We can be proud of what we did and we need to keep going for the next game.
"I think we had our chances. We could have scored to equalise but I think we are playing against a strong team. It was difficult, it was tight and they won. It is what we want. We want to fight against every opponent. We gave our best. Even Liverpool was a tight game.
"This is the way. We need to believe that we can compete against everyone in the league and give our best to see what we can achieve this season. I think they have played together for a long time with the manager and players.
"We can feel that they have a lot of ways to play together. They gave us many difficulties in their counterattacks. I think we could have done better in some ways but, in the end, it was a tight game."
Kante has scored three goals in his last four Premier League appearances, but he insists he has not been asked to change his game by manager Lampard, who is one of football’s all-time great goalscoring midfielders.
"Not especially [being asked by Lampard to score]," Kante continued. "I enjoy it, but I enjoy it more when we win. This is how it is for the whole team. No, no [I am not like Lampard was]. I would rather win than score.
"I want to help the team and keep winning to stay at the top of the table. I am trying to score when I have the opportunity to help the team. I think from the years I have been playing here, and I am now more often arriving in the box.
"I start to score when I have the chances. It was a good goal. We didn't manage to keep the result but a good pass from Mateo [Kovacic]. I hope we can score more as a team and win many games. I think this year, as the year before, we have a lot of quality midfielders.
"I think that it doesn't matter who plays but everyone wants to play his part and give his best when they are playing. We are a squad together and it doesn't matter who is playing, you just have to give your best for the shirt."
Chelsea next travel away to Valencia in the Champions League on Wednesday before a home game against London rivals West Ham in the Premier League.
