These stories are samples pulled from external media sources. They do not represent the views or position of Chelsea Football Club.

Smith commends attitude of Gilmour

New Norwich City manager Dean Smith hopes that Billy Gilmour can play a huge part in keeping the Canaries in the Premier League this season.

The ex-Aston Villa boss took charge of his first game over the weekend, seeing off Southampton 2-1 at Carrow Road, and started Gilmour for the first time since mid-September.

Smith was quick to heap praise on the Scotland international after the match, and a story in the Belfast Telegraph highlights the potential importance of the 20-year-old.

‘Billy will be very vital to staying up,’ said Smith. ‘When you have a player of that talent on loan, you want to get the best out of him. We want to utilise the strengths he has.

‘He showed pockets of what he could do in the first half but we had to see another side to him because we didn’t have an awful lot of the ball, but I think he showed everybody what he can do.

‘Billy is a terrific player but better than that is his attitude and character.

‘He just loves football and wants to be out there all the time. He was watching our Under-23s play on Friday and he was all over the pitch against Southampton.’

Norwich City captain Grant Hanley also had his say on the Chelsea-loanee.

‘There is no doubt in my mind Billy Gilmour will play right at the very top,' said Hanley. 'He is probably the best player every day in training, every time he plays he is probably the best player.'

Drogba on who could break his records

Chelsea icon Didier Drogba has admitted he is worried that ex-Blues player Mohamed Salah is going to break his current goalscoring records.

The pair were team-mates together during the 2014/15 season at Stamford Bridge, during Drogba's second period at the club.

Drogba holds an illustrious amount of records at both Chelsea and in football, not least being the highest ever non-English goalscorer at the Blues with 164 goals.

Speaking to Mehwar TV, Drogba said: ‘If he continues, he’s going to destroy all my records - I want to cry!’

Drogba still leads the Egyptian in Champions League history with 44 goals to his name, with Salah 11 goals away from equalling Didier’s tally.

Despite joking about the 29-year-old coming for his many records, Drogba insisted that Salah was a good team-mate to have at Cobham.

‘When you look at the squad we had at the time, it was not easy to play,’ said Drogba. ‘But what really got me attached to Mo is that he’s really nice, he’s really polite.

‘Even when he was not playing, he was sad not to contribute, but he was always in good spirits.’

Duo feature in Team of the Week

Antonio Rudiger and N’Golo Kante have both been named in Garth Crooks’ Team of the Week following our 3-0 away win at Leicester on Saturday.

The pair were both on the scoresheet in the East Midlands, with Rudiger’s glancing header the opener, before N’Golo scored a stunning solo goal to make it 2-0 before half-time.

‘The German is a threat in the opposition penalty area, and his headed goal was an absolute peach,’ Crooks wrote for the BBC. ‘Chelsea also looked impenetrable at the back with Rudiger and Thiago Silva at the heart of their defence.

‘Rudiger is without doubt their best defender right now. Lose him for any length of time for whatever reason and Chelsea might find themselves in a spot of bother.’

N’Golo Kante won the Man of the Match award for Chelsea and Crooks says he is ‘back to his best.’

‘He's very capable of this so I don't know why he doesn't do it more often. Kante's 28th-minute strike with his left foot was as clean as it was brilliant.

‘Kante is back to his best but looking more comfortable on the ball than I've ever seen him. Normally you soon find out who the best 11 players are in any given team.

‘The beauty about this Chelsea side is I don't know what their best team is. Whoever comes in seems to fit the system perfectly and once in, it's very difficult to get him out.

‘It's a system that can only be deployed if you've got the depth of squad and the quality of players to do it.’