Zouma, who spent last season on loan at Everton and the one before at Stoke, has started each of our three games so far in the heart of defence. He recovered from giving a penalty away at Old Trafford on the opening weekend by turning in fine individual performances against Liverpool and Leicester.

‘I knew myself I had done mistakes,’ said Zouma.

‘I want to be perfect every game. I am still learning and I have to learn from that. After a game like this you have to focus and keep the concentration high, and I think I have done well after that to keep myself ready and prepared.

‘I always give my all on the pitch, that’s what I am here for. I just want to work hard and play. That's what I'm trying to do and the most important thing is the team. We need to start winning games.

‘I am in a big club and everyone here wants to play,’ added Zouma. ‘The competition is very hard and you can see in the squad, there are a lot of talented players so when you train, you have to do it right. Everyone that’s on the pitch wants to stay on the pitch. The competition can only make us better.’

In February 2016, while a first-choice centre-back at Chelsea, Zouma suffered a serious knee injury in a game against Manchester United. The recovery was a long one, but he was back and able to feature a handful of times towards the end of the league-winning campaign in 2016/17, before embarking on loan spells in the Potteries and Merseyside.

‘It has been a very, very long journey. I don't want to talk about that now because that is the past but I fought very hard.

‘People don't know, people don't see but I was in the shadow, working hard to get back because I had a very, very bad injury. I was off for one year but people forget that and don't see. But me, I always believed in myself.

‘My family was always there behind me, supporting me and now I am back here, I am very happy to play here. I just want to keep going.’