Chelsea and England defender Ben Chilwell has praised team-mate N'Golo Kante's improvement as a player since joining the Blues from Leicester City.
The pair spent time together at the Foxes, with Chilwell making his move to West London over the summer while Kante joined in 2016.
The French midfielder and World Cup winner has long been regarded as one of the finest defensive midfielders on the planet, but Chilwell told Soccer AM that he believes his technical ability is now up there with the best as well.
"Obviously I was at Leicester with NG [Kante] for a few years while he was there, and obviously [I'm] now back with him," he said.
"Personally, what I've noticed [is] he was always amazing at the defensive side of the game, but since joining here his technical ability now is one of the best in the team. Technically he's so good on top of how good he is defensively.
"Because of how much possession Chelsea have, obviously he's improved a lot technically as well as probably being the best in the world defensively."
Kante has started every game in the Premier League for Chelsea this season and provided the assist for Timo Werner 's late goal against Sheffield United before the international break.
The Blues ran out 4-1 winners to extend their unbeaten run to eight matches in all competitions.
Frank Lampard 's side face a trip to Newcastle United on Saturday but are likely to be without Chilwell, who picked up an injury in England's Nations League match against Belgium during the international break.
He limped off to be replaced by Arsenal 's Bukayo Saka during the first half of the 2-0 defeat.
