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Chelsea forward Kai Havertz is enjoying some strong form once again, but he revealed the mental toll this season has taken on himself and those around him.
The Germany international has made 22 starts from Chelsea’s 26 Premier League fixtures this campaign, having only scored 27 goals as a team.
It has resulted in a pressure-packed season as boss Graham Potter fights for his job, and while Havertz’s own production has not taken too much of a hit, the weight of a disappointing season has taken its toll.
After eight goals and four assists in 29 league appearances last season, Havertz has tallied six goals and one assist this time around, but had only one goal in his past 10 prior to finding the back of the net against Leicester City in Saturday’s 3-1 win.
“Football is our life,” Havertz told reporters. “If you lose a game, of course you don’t have an easy life as well.
“I think everyone at home, especially my girlfriend, has had some tough weeks as well in the last weeks and months. I think she is happy now again and so am I.
“For you [journalists], it is the same – if you have a bad day at work… you… I won’t say the word now but you don’t feel good. Football is a game where we have a lot of pressure on our shoulders.
“We want to make the fans happy and if you don’t make them happy then you don’t have a good time.”
But things have begun to swing back the other way, with Havertz coming off a goal in consecutive games as he put one past Borussia Dortmund to help Chelsea advance in the Champions League, before another strong performance against Leiceister.
“Winning is always the best, we won again so we can enjoy some days,” he said. “We knew it was going to take some time to adapt for everyone. So maybe, you could see that we are still not finished.
“It will always take time to develop. We can develop a lot but we showed another good performance [at Leicester] and we can be happy.
“Of course, to win three games in a row is important for us because we had a tough time before that. We knew we would bounce back.
“We still have a game to play [at home to Everton] before the [international break for the] national team. We have to keep our focus high and win the next game as well.”
