Interview

‘It’s nice to get a double over Chelsea’

For the second time in five months, we banished the Blues by picking up three points against Chelsea.

It’s our first Premier League double over the West Londoners since the 2003/04 season, and our first win at Stamford Bridge since our 5-3 victory back in October 2011.

And after playing a starring role in our back line, Rob Holding spoke to us about our performance, playing with a three-man defence and ending the season on a high. Here’s what he said:

on his performance…

I managed to block everything, head everything that came my way. We just sort of defended first and then anything we could do with the ball, we did. It's nice to get a double over Chelsea for the season. We got a good one at home and then it's nice to grind out a result here.

on how we were able to dig in…

Yeah the last sort of 20 minutes, they threw everything forward. Zouma came up towards the end and Oli came on, and gave them a big threat up front with balls in the air. We had to match that and to be fair, the back five - the whole team from front to back - defended really well.

on a nervy end to the game…

It's going to be because of the way they were going all-out attacking and we had something to hang onto, which is important especially when you're playing away in the Premier League. If you get that goal, it gives you something to hold onto and they come out a bit more, then you can maybe get them on the counter. We tried to kill the game off as best we could, we took up a bit of time but that's part of football and team's do it to us, so it's right we do it to them.

on switching to a back three…

We did a bit of work on that in training. It's tough when the games are so fast and it's a two-day turnaround, but we knew it was going to be one-on-one duels and to match them up. We beat our man in our duels and that gave us a chance to win the game.

on ending the season on a high…

We owe the fans a lot after this season. We've let them down a few times, so if we can wrap up some points, wrap up some wins and give them something to look forward to going into next season.