Denis Zakaria wasn’t overly pleased with his performance in Chelsea’s 2-0 defeat of Bournemouth.
Zakaria, on loan from Juventus, has placed even higher expectations on himself and his words will prove music to the ears of Chelsea boss Graham Potter.
“I think I’m really happy for the team for the big win, but I think my performance should be better,” said Zakaria.
“I wasn’t happy with my performance actually, but we won, that’s the most important thing. And let’s work for the next game now.
“I’m really happy (to play), it’s great to get some minutes in the legs, it’s important for me. I have to work, and it’s going to be better with time.”
Raheem Sterling set up Kai Havertz’s opener with a curved low ball across the area, before Zakaria played a key role in Chelsea’s second goal.
“That win was really important for us,” said Zakaria. “We saw that we have to do some things better, we didn’t play our best match but what was important today was the win and we have to work now for the next game.
“I was running towards goal but then I saw that it was closed in front of me, so I cut back, Kai was there and he gave the ball to Mason, and he scored a beautiful goal. I’m so happy for him and happy for the team.
“It’s really important for us to start building momentum now. We know we have a lot of games coming now.
“We want to win every game coming, so we know we have to work hard.
“I think this year is difficult for all players, there’s a lot of games, but we are professionals, we love to play football so at the end we play football and we’re very happy to do it. So it’s not too difficult in the end.”
On Reece James’ injury, the Swiss added: “Reece is such an important player for us, we all know Reece’s quality. And for me, he’s the best right-back in the world.
“So it’s really important for us that he can be back soon, and I hope it’s not such a big injury.”
