Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel is delighted with his midfield pairing N'Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic.

Ahead of today's clash at Manchester City, Tuchel claimed the absence of the duo during the season has allowed City to establish a gap between them on the table.

"If you have players out like Mateo and N'Golo, and they share their work with Jorginho on the very highest level in the middle of the pitch, then you miss the core of your team," he said.

"They are so important in the way they come to training, the way they push everybody and the way they are positive. The key players, the top, top players, behave the same way every day. No matter if they have to rest one game, or if they have personal differences, or if they have to fight, their experience and attitude is right. They know what it takes to overperform consistently.

"They push everybody to the limit because they push themselves all the time to the limit. NG is doing this without words. He does it by example, and makes everybody see what the benchmark is. Kova is doing it with words and attitude and a lot of empathy. There are many more like this."