Maurizio Sarri has challenged Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Ross Barkley to learn from N’Golo Kante’s improvement in the final third after the Frenchman scored the only goal in Chelsea’s victory at Crystal Palace .

Though a tally of three goals may not blow anyone away it is already Kante’s best return in any season in one of Europe’s top five divisions. This was his most important yet, an intelligent run infield from the right flank allowing him to drift inside the Palace defence and claim David Luiz’s chip before volleying home.

It was a reminder that there is more to Kante than the anchorman that many demanded he must be after his struggles in last month’s defeat to Tottenham whilst it was also the sort of goal Sarri wants to see from his other midfielders.

“He has to think about defence first of all,” Sarri said of Kante. “He is improving, especially in movements without the ball like today. The movement was really very good and was done with the right timings.

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“For us it’s really important because when we have to play against opponents going low in density for the striker it is very difficult to find space. The same for the wingers. For us the movement without the ball from midfielders is very important.

“Now we have to work on Loftus-Cheek and Barkley for this. Especially Loftus-Cheek isa very great player with the ball but I think he can improve a lot in the movement without the ball.”

Kante’s goal was perhaps the only moment of quality in a dreary afternoon at Selhurst Park, where Chelsea rarely tested Vicente Guaita in the Palace goal but similarly went through the entire match without Kepa Arrizabalaga having to make so much as a save.

Palace still might have snatched a point at the death, when Connor Wickham volleyed over from close range, and Sarri was far from impressed at his side’s inability to kill off a game where they dominated possession and enjoyed three times as many shots.

“I think we played against a dangerous opponent,” he said. “They are dangerous on attacks. We had to have good positions.

“We were in good control of the match. We didn’t kill the match so for us it is difficult to defend in the box.

“For 85 minutes we were very good, without conceding for the opponents. I didn’t like that we weren’t able to kill the match before.”

How will the 2018-19 Premier League season finish up?