Willian has revealed that Antonio Conte is giving the Chelsea players very little rest despite the fact the club are not in the Champions League this season.
Since taking charge of Chelsea in the summer, Conte has successfully lifted the Blues from their lowly state to their current enviable position at the summit of the Premier League table.
Conte's early success at Chelsea has been aided, in part, by the club's lack of involvement in a European competition, which came about after the then-defending Premier League champions finished last season in 10th place.
But Willian has said that Conte hasn't allowed the Chelsea players to rest on their laurels this term - with the Brazilian revealing the Italian coach puts the squad through more training sessions to make up for playing, on average, one game a week.
"It's intense," Willian told Sky Sports about Conte's regime.
"He likes to work. We train hard. Sometimes it's two hours of intense training. We always have a plan going into the game and we have to trust in the plan. We've done that.
"We have a whole week to train so there's more training. There's no rest. Sometimes he gives us one day.
"But we like the way we train and we trust the manager. But we miss the Champions League. To play Champions League is good and that's why we are working hard this season to get back."
He added: "The way we are training makes us more confident in the games too. We can run and put pressure on the opponents. And when you win game by game, this brings even more confidence.
"We have to keep it going. The target is to stay together and to play together. If we trust in our team-mates then we have a great chance to win the title this season."
