Chelsea head coach Maurizio Sarri praised Callum Hudson-Odoi's maturity after the teenager's performance against Tottenham in the EFL Cup.
Hudson-Odoi, 18, is linked with a move to Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich, but started in his side's 1-0 loss to Spurs in the first leg at Wembley on Tuesday.
Sarri was happy with the attacker's performance and said Hudson-Odoi had shown no signs of being distracted by the transfer speculation.
"Odoi in the last week has been very normal. I have seen him every day in training, he has been really very normal," he told a news conference.
"He is improving, in the last match he played very well and also today I think a very good match.
"He played like a player of 25 or 26 years, I think – very good match of application, very good in the defensive phase, very, very good.
"He was completely normal in this period. I don't know, maybe he doesn't read anything."
Harry Kane's first-half penalty settled the first leg, with Chelsea to host Spurs in the second match on January 24.
But Sarri said his team deserved better, labelling their performance "one of the most important" of the season.
"I think we deserved more. In this match we played better than the opponents," he said.
"We were in control of the match, we defended very well against opponents who are very dangerous in the offensive phase, I think we deserved more.
"We played about 70 balls in the opposing box against 11 balls from Tottenham in our box, 18 shots against seven, five goal opportunities against two, so we deserved more.
"I am really disappointed with the result but I am happy with the performance. In my opinion this one is one of the most important performances of my team in the season."
