The winger is midway through his second season at Stamford Bridge – he arrived from Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2024 – and has established himself as a reliable presence across the Blues' attack.

No player has made more than his 27 Premier League appearances for Chelsea this season, and only Enzo Fernandez and Joao Pedro can better his tally of 10 goals in all competitions this term.

Reaching double figures, aided by his maiden senior hat-trick scored against Hull City in the FA Cup, makes this the most prolific campaign of Neto's career. Yet the Portugal international is focused on pushing himself over the remainder of the season.

‘It’s been really good,’ said Neto ahead of our Premier League trip to Arsenal. ‘I’ve been learning a lot, improving I think as well. This is maybe the first time I’ve had a season playing a lot of minutes, so I’m really enjoying the season and I want to do more.

‘I will keep working hard to get better and to make changes as well in terms of improving my game and learning. This is the way I work day-by-day.

‘I had the first hat-trick in my career, so I’m really delighted. I just want more. I want to keep these feelings when you win. You always want to keep winning and I want to keep having goals and assists, but the most important thing is I enjoy it when I play.’

It is not all fun and games, though. Neto is well aware of the expectations that come with representing a club that has the ambitions of Chelsea.

Neto views the pressure that comes with that drive to succeed as a positive, believing it pushes the Blues on as we look to recreate the winning feeling of last season’s triumphs in the UEFA Conference League and FIFA Club World Cup.

The 24-year-old said: ‘When you play here, you have a lot of expectations, like if you can be champion or not, if you can make the Champions League or not, and if you don’t do it, the pressure is a lot. It’s good pressure and you only get affected by that if you let it, but it’s the standards of this club.

‘I came to this club to win trophies as we did in my first season. It was an unbelievable first season for me. The second one, we have a long way to go, we have a lot to fight for. So the expectations are really big. Of course, we have the expectation to do better every year. To be at a top club, the responsibility is bigger as well.

‘There is more motivation as well, of course. When you learn what it is to win trophies, you just want to win more and more, because the sensation that you have is unbelievable.

‘That is why you play the game. The feeling that I had when I won for this club was unbelievable. I want to feel it again.’

As we prepare to take on Arsenal in our first fixture of March, Neto’s sights are firmly set on building on the achievements from his first season with Chelsea. That is clear when he is asked what his and the team-mates' ambitions for the remainder of 2025/26 are.

‘Do better than I did before and achieve what I can with this football club and the national team. Those are my goals,’ he concluded.

‘The goal of the club is to win the most trophies we can. We are in the FA Cup, we are in the Champions League. We are a little bit far away from the title, but we have to make sure we are in the Champions League.

‘The goals are there and we know which ones they are. Of course, as a club we want to win trophies and those trophies would be a beautiful way to finish the season.’