Maurizio Sarri lavished praise on N’Golo Kante for his solid performance in Chelsea FC’s 3-0 win over Huddersfield Town in the Premier League on Saturday.
The French midfielder was deployed in a slightly more advanced role than normal and he scored the opening goal for the Blues to set them on their way towards a confident victory in their first Premier League game of the season.
Kante has earned plenty of praise for his strong performances for both club and country in recent seasons and he helped France to triumph at this summer’s World Cup in Russia.
And Sarri was thrilled with the display of the 27-year-old as he helped Chelsea FC to make a positive start to the new season under their new boss.
Speaking to Chelsea FC’s website, Sarri said: “He is playing like a centre right-midfielder and I am very happy for the performance of Kante, especially when I think he only arrived with us on Monday.
“I am really very impressed.”
Sarri will be hoping for an equally impressive performance from his team when they take on Arsenal in their next Premier League game at Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening.
The Blues are aiming to at least break back into the top four this season after they finished in fifth place last term under Antonio Conte and won the FA Cup.
Chelsea were far from perfect, even shaky at times during the first half, but they improved as the game progressed and made off with maximum points from their first league match under Maurizio Sarri. N’Golo Kanté, Jorginho and Pedro scored and the visitors could have added more goals but Huddersfield had their moments, too, and there were times when Sarri seemed to chew particularly hard on the item he had in his mouth throughout the match, which looked suspiciously like a cigarette filter.
“If you look at the result you think about an easy game but in the first half we were in trouble against a very physical team,” admitted Sarri. “The best part was we showed our capacity to suffer. Then in the second half the opponents were a bit tired and it was easier.”
The visitors were lucky not to concede a penalty when David Luiz handled after trying to use Alex Pritchard as a springboard as he leapt for a header. The referee decided the Chelsea defender had been fouled, a decision he might have reversed with the benefit of VAR.
Up until then Arrizabalaga had been the busier of the two keepers, slashing at a couple of attempted clearances and making a routine stop from a shot by Pritchard. Despite their spluttering, Chelsea took the lead 10 minutes before the break through Kante and added another one through Jorginho while Pedro wrapped up the points later on.