“We try to forget last season.”

Those were the words of Chelsea midfielder Nemanja Matic as he reflected on his side extending an imperious run to 11 wins on the bounce with Saturday's 1-0 win at Crystal Palace.

If the Serbian's polite statement that “this stadium is always difficult for us” – in relation to a ground where Chelsea have beaten Palace more often than any other team in the Premier League era – raised eyebrows, his assessment of the irrelevance of past results was nearer the money.

“I forgot very quickly the season when we were champions,” said Matic, restored to the starting XI at the expense of Cesc Fabregas at the weekend.

“In football, every day is a new challenge. Every day is different because no-one asks what's happened before, the present and the future is the most important.

“This is football, it's good for us because last year was not so good.”

Christmas number one: Antonio Conte's Chelsea will be top of the league on Christmas Day but the Italian manager will not countenance any title talk

Matic, back in tandem with the ever-industrious N'Golo Kante, said the Blues' impressive run of results emphasised the importance of not thinking the title is won despite the club's record of having won the league every time they have been the Christmas number one, as they will be again this year.

“I think 11 games ago we had eight points less than [Manchester] City and now we have six or seven points more than them,” said the £21 million prodigal son, who was obviously presuming Pep Guardiola's side would take maximum points at home to Arsenal yesterday.

But with manager Antonio Conte persistently refusing to let slip any talk of winning the title in his first season in England, Matic strayed from the party line by admitting his teammates have their tails up.

“We have confidence now,” said the Serb, tellingly, “we've won 11 games in a row, which is not easy, especially in the Premier League, so we will see.”