The gifted Belgian has been a runaway success since joining City but his time at Stamford Bridge ended unhappily with his first team opportunities limited to just a handful of appearances.
De Bruyne played just nine games for the Pensioners and after spending his first season on loan with Werder Bremen, he returned to West London but was rarely used by Jose Mourinho and instead joined Wolfsburg midway through the 2013/14 campaign.
Since then, De Bruyne has flourished into one of the best attacking midfielders in Europe with 15 goals from 28 starts for the Blues this season.
“I don’t feel I have to prove anything to anyone because there’s nothing really to say – it’s not a case of I played a lot and played badly - I just didn’t play,” said De Bruyne.
“It is it what it is and I’m just going there to try and help City win the game which is really important for us.
“If we want to put pressure on the teams around us, it’s obviously better to take three points so maybe that will work in our favour because there’s no pressure on Chelsea to win now.
“It should be a great game, but we know how hard it will be because it’s a tough ground to go to.
“They are still a top side and they will be back next season. They are having a year like Borussia Dortmund did last season. They have had a difficult campaign and sometimes that happens – you can’t win the title every year and there’s no guarantee of finishing in the top four each season – it’s a case of putting behind you and coming back the next year and I’m certain they’ll do that.”
De Bruyne also admitted his return from injury probably couldn’t have gone much better, adding: “I didn’t know what to expect to be fair, but the first four games have been almost perfect because we’ve won three out of four games and gone through to the Champions League semi-final. It’s been a good return so far.”
