Bengaluru FC face NorthEast United FC in their second away game of Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2017-18 at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati on Friday. After tasting defeat in their last game against FC Goa, the Blues will look to turn the tables in front of the passionate NorthEast supporters. Speaking to indiansuperleague.com, their captain and talisman Sunil Chhetri shared his thoughts on the upcoming fixture. Here are the excerpts from the interview.

Your thoughts on the start Bengaluru has made in their debut Hero ISL season?

Quite happy. The last game didn’t go according to plan. Apart from that, I think we’re quite happy with the way we’ve started. Convincing wins in both the home games was good, was a great start. And now, after the jolt against FC Goa, it’s time to show our character and come back strong. It’s very, very important to do well in away games, if you want to be in the last four. So we’ll try to do our best against NorthEast United tomorrow and get the three points if possible.

What’s it like to play alongside Miku and Erik Paartalu?

It’s nice, it’s good. Apart from the fact that they score goals, they have very good footballing brains. And the way our coach wants to play makes them very, very important. It’s a nice mixture of talent in our team. Both Erik and Miku are the protagonists. Miku is outstanding with his touches, his running and goal scoring ability. Paartalu is our main guy, our hitman, whenever we have corners I’m just looking at him. It’s good to have a great mixture, Udanta (Singh) with his pace on the right and Edu (Garcia) on the left with his dribbling skills. (Harmanjot) Khabra and Rahul (Bheke) are doing really well, we’ll miss Gurpreet (Singh Sandhu) for a couple of games (after his red card). Calvin Abhishek will get a chance, we have good talent.

What’s the team’s comfort level like away from home?

It’s just been one game (away from home) and we don’t have very good memories of that game. We want to learn from that game and move forward. Tomorrow’s a good test. When you do well at home, the onus is on you. If you want to be in the top four, you have to take points from away games. I don’t have a different answer to your question.

What kind of a game are you expecting from NorthEast?

The tactical part, our coach has already discussed and probably would not like me to disclose it. But they’re a strong side, a very physical side. We would like to counter that.

How important is it to get on the top of the table early in the season?

It’s more important to play well and get the points. Right now, if we think about being on top that wouldn’t help. The league is just three games old. We want to take one game at a time. We are just thinking about our game and later, we can do the permutations and combinations.

What do you think sets Bengaluru apart?

We at Bengaluru work very hard. Right from the coaches, to the head coach, to the players, we want to improve every single day and will never change. That is what we want from our team.

Any message for the fans?

Thank you so much for all your kind wishes on all social media platforms. We are really very happy for all the kind messages. I want to wish you all a merry Christmas and very happy new year.