N’Golo Kante has earned a huge number of plaudits for his performances in the Blues engine room this season, while Conte is aware of the threat posed by Manchester United’s Paul Pogba, having managed him for two campaigns at Juventus.

Starting with the importance of Kante to this Chelsea side, Conte was full of praise for a man he believes shares the same work ethic he demonstrated during his own playing days. However, as with all players, the Italian insists there is room for improvement.

‘My job is to try and improve my players and I want to improve my players through working very hard,’ said Conte. ‘We are talking about a great player – he played very well in the past, last season with Leicester, and he is playing very well also this season with us.

‘We are working in some aspects to try and improve him, to make him a more complete player, but we are talking about a great player. N’Golo is also a fantastic person, with great commitment and he is a great example.

‘He’s a really good guy – he always has a smile on his face and this is fantastic. During training sessions, he works a lot, but with a smile. To see this is great for the other players, for the staff, for me and all the people who work at Chelsea. He’s a great player and, I repeat, he always puts 100 per cent in the game but also in the training.

‘In my career I like a lot this type of player, also because I was this type of player! I always appreciate this player, with great generosity, with great ability to work for the team. I think it’s important to have this type of player if you want to win. Not only great talent, but also players that run a lot during the game.’

Going into more detail on the similarities between Kante and Conte the player, our head coach said: ‘He’s stronger than me! I think I was perhaps stronger than him to score the goal, but in the other aspects, there isn’t a competition with him – he is stronger than me.’

As Conte seeks to lead us to silverware in his first season at Chelsea, one of United’s key players knows all about lifting trophies under the Italian’s stewardship, with Pogba and Conte winning back-to-back Serie A trophies and an Italian Super Cup at Juventus between 2013 and 2014.

‘I don’t like to talk about the players of the other teams, but in this case, with Paul, I have had the opportunity in the past to train him and, yeah, we are talking about a top player in all the situations,’ he said.

‘Also, in his commitment during training sessions to try to improve himself, with great technique, physically strong and great stamina – I can tell you that Paul Pogba is a top player.

‘We are working to try to find the right solution for the whole team, not only for Pogba or for one individual player. We are studying Manchester United to try to find the right solution. Paul is a really good player, we must pay great attention to him, but it’s right to think about the whole Manchester United team because this team is very strong.’

As for which player he thinks is the best, Conte said: ‘They are two different players with different characteristics. It’s very difficult to try to compare Paul and N’Golo – two top players but with different characteristics.’