There are not many players that tend to cover more ground than Mason Mount per 90 minutes, but N’Golo Kante is probably one of those that runs him close.
The French midfielder returned to the Chelsea midfield at Southampton yesterday, playing a key role as we came from behind to draw 1-1 thanks to Mount’s second-half penalty.
Mount was fantastic in his own right, arguably Chelsea’s best performer at St Mary’s, but the England international was quick to highlight the role N’Golo played on the South Coast and why it can only been seen as a positive to have the Frenchman back fully fit.
‘N’Golo definitely did a lot more running than me today!’ Mason joked, when speaking about his team-mate after the game yesterday.
‘He doesn’t stop running and e know what N’Golo’s like, winning every little ball, brilliant to have around the place and obviously it’s brilliant to have him back in.
‘He’s unbelievable to play with. He’s a big character within the group, he doesn’t say much but what he does physically and the way he goes about himself, he’s a massive character so it’s obviously brilliant to have him back.’
After starting on the bench in Thomas Tuchel’s first game in charge, Mount has since established himself as a regular under the German and the midfielder has said he is enjoying life under our new head coach.
The message from Mason remains firm, however, in that the Blues must continue our fine progress and return to winning ways as soon as possible.
‘We’ve made a lot of progress,’ added Mason. ‘It’s always difficult for a new manager to come in halfway through a season with the amount of games we’ve had but I feel like all the boys have really adapted well to his style.
‘We’ve learnt under him in this short period of time and put it into practice as much as we can so it’s going well, we have a big, big game coming up now, a tough period and we just need to get back to winning ways.
‘I’m enjoying it under him, it’s going well so far and we need to keep winning, keep pushing the results and make sure we get better in every training session and every game. The most important thing is we’re learning more and more every day so hopefully we keep it going in some big games coming up.’