Ruben Loftus-Cheek targets starting spot at Chelsea

| 03 December 2018

Ruben Loftus-Cheek targets starting spot at Chelsea

The England midfielder scored after coming off the bench against Fulham.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek hopes to continue to make an impression on Maurizio Sarri and force his way into the head coach's first-choice Chelsea team.

Loftus-Cheek came off the substitutes' bench to score in Sunday's 2-0 win over Fulham, his second goal providing a valuable cushion as Sarri later lamented the failure to kill off their opponents.

It was Loftus-Cheek's first Premier League appearance since October's win at Burnley and afterwards Sarri said the England midfielder "solved me problems".

"When I get time to play I am always doing my best," Loftus-Cheek said on chelseafc.com.

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Good to get the 3 points today and pleased to get on the scoresheet on my 50th Premier League appearance! Well played lads. 💪🏾⚽ #CFC

A post shared by Ruben loftus-cheek (@rubey_lcheek) on Dec 2, 2018 at 7:22am PST

"This season it looked like I am getting time in the Europa League and I had to be ready for that.

"And if I do well in the Europa League then maybe I will get more minutes in the Premier League, like this game, and I will try to do my best.

"The more I play the better I feel and the better I play. Days like this I get my time to play and try to take it, whether that is a goal or an assist or making blocks.

"I have to do things both defensively and offensively."

Chelsea lost for the first time this season, ending an 18-match unbeaten competitive run, at Tottenham and responded with last Thursday's 4-0 Europa League win over PAOK.

Next for the Blues is Wednesday's Premier League clash at Wolves before Saturday's visit of leaders Manchester City to Stamford Bridge.

Maxime Le Marchand is encouraged by Fulham's progress under Claudio Ranieri — Maxime Le Marchand is encouraged by Fulham's progress under **Claudio Ranieri** (Steven Paston/PA)

Fulham on Wednesday face Claudio Ranieri's former club Leicester, title winners in 2015/16 under the Italian.

The Cottagers boss said his side's performance in defeat at Chelsea was better than in victory over Southampton.

Left-back Maxime Le Marchand concurs and says there is optimism for the future.

"He's an Italian gaffer, so we work tactically and I think we're getting better, but there's still a few details we need to work on," he said on fulhamfc.com.

"We're getting better. We have a really good team spirit, which is good and helping us to improve.

"It's better and we are confident for the future."

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