Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel admits N'Golo Kante admits his thigh injury is a blow.

Tuchel concedes the midfielder will be missing for at least a month.

He said, “We are talking about four weeks plus. I told you at the end of last season he is our key player normally. He gives something to our team that no other player in the world can give to any other team. That makes him a key player. If your key player is out, it's a situation you don't like but have to deal with. It has huge influence.

“It's difficult to replace him, he's very unique. We were full of hope after pre-season because we built his pre-season very individually. He had a long pre-season, a good pre-season, felt good. For many years he felt very strong, getting enough rest and build-up to be the player he can be for us. We started with one game a week so the hopes were high that he can play consistently for us.

"If we build another system, I don't know. We have trust in our players. It will maybe be the same system. We played many games, unfortunately, without him in the same structure. It will be slightly different because every player is a bit different. That is the challenge to adapt to this, use different players differently. To change completely because N'Golo is not there, I don't think so."