SCHURRLE: FEELING STRONGER

Over the course of the past few weeks, Andre Schurrle has been playing his best football of the season to date, and with his national side the most recent beneficiaries of his impressive form, the 22-year-old is hoping to maintain a high level of performance when we face Cardiff City tomorrow (Saturday).

Two months into the season, Schurrle, after moving to Stamford Bridge in the summer, is finding his feet. The Germany international has started our last three matches, and caught the eye with a wonderful individual display in the 4-0 Champions League win over Steaua Bucharest.

After scoring in Germany’s 3-0 victory over Republic of Ireland last Saturday, he was the hero for Joachim Low’s side in midweek, scoring a 19-minute hat-trick which helped them to a 5-3 win in Sweden.

‘I played all the minutes and scored four goals so it was a very good international break for me,’ he tells the official Chelsea website.

‘It was the first hat-trick of my professional career; every time you score two goals in a match there’s an opportunity to score a third, that’s how it was for me and I’m very happy.’

With the Blues unbeaten in five prior to a number of our players heading off to represent their respective nations, the international break could have come at a better time, but Schurrle is simply looking forward to returning to Premier League action.

‘That’s just how the international break works and you have to be able to handle it,’ he says.

‘We played good matches going into it but hopefully we can carry on where we left off. We have so many good players with a lot of quality, we are capable of beating anyone, and hopefully we can do that against Cardiff on Saturday.

‘We played against Norwich recently, and I expect Cardiff to be a similar game. They will be around their box, try to defend and play on the counter-attack. We have to look at our own game, though, and if we play to our strengths we can cause any team problems.’

After laying on our third goal for Ramires in Bucharest, Schurrle was embraced on the touchline by Jose Mourinho for the part he played, and his exploits for Germany of late have ensured his national manager, Low, is equally pleased with his recent contribution.

It’s certainly early days in his Chelsea career but, for now, his decision to swap Leverkusen for London appears to have been a smart one.

‘I feel much stronger during matches when I’m on the pitch, I feel confident to try things and I have a lot of positive energy, and that’s what I need in order to help my game,’ he explains.

‘I’m very happy to be here, I feel really good both in the team and living in London, it’s hard work but a lot of fun, so I’m really pleased.’

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