In the build-up to our FA Cup third round tie at Manchester City, Denis Zakaria has been reflecting on his run in the Chelsea team and why those minutes will be so useful for him to continue building momentum.
The Switzerland international has started our past three Premier League matches and completed his first 90 minutes in blue in our narrow home defeat to City on Thursday evening. In fact, over 60 per cent of the midfielder’s Chelsea minutes have come in the past fortnight since his return from the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
With that run of games under his belt, the 26-year-old believes he has built a strong platform to start producing some of his best performances since his loan switch from Juventus in the summer.
‘I feel really good and I’m happy to play these minutes,’ he told us this week. ‘It will get better and better with time, that’s really important.
‘I saw this in the last year, which was a really difficult time for me. I didn’t play that much and it was the first time so then you feel it after 60 or 70 minutes, you’re already tired. It’s really important for a player to have minutes and play regularly because then you have the rhythms for all the games.
‘When you train well, you have to be patient and wait until a chance. That’s taken a lot of time but I was always here, trying to get some minutes, and when I have the chance to play I have to be the best version of Denis Zakaria.
‘It can be difficult for the head but you have to stay focused and know about your quality, to tell yourself that you are a good player and that you can do this.’
Zakaria has played in Germany, Italy and England so is well placed to offer an insight into why adapting to the game on these shores can be so difficult for overseas players. He also feels English football suits his high-energy game so well.
‘It's really different with a lot of intensity, aggression and impact,’ he explained. ‘It’s not easy to play in England but actually I have the feeling that I’m made for this.
‘I’m really enjoying English football and I’m happy to be here. I just hope that I can keep helping the team for the next games.’
Our next assignment comes against City once again, our second meeting in four days, with a place in the FA Cup fourth round up for grabs.
For Zakaria, it will be the first taste of a competition he watched from afar on television in Switzerland growing up and, having played against Pep Guardiola’s side twice already during his four months here, he knows the Blues will have to be at their best in order to advance.
‘It’s always the FA Cup on TV and we know that in England there are no easy games so we have to work,’ he added. ‘We will play against one of the best clubs in the world so it will be a hard game but we have our revenge to take and I hope that we will do a great match.
‘We all have to play our best versions because against Man City, if you do five per cent less then you will be punished. We have to be the best team on the pitch and show them our quality because we have a lot of quality in our team as well.’