‘We locked them in for the second half’

Petr Cech’s safe handling - and a fine fingertip save - helped preserve our clean sheet at Burnley on Sunday.

The goalkeeper spoke after the game:

on what Ramsey has said about the penalty incident…

He had a good run into the box and obviously it was one of the last chances we had. Overall, we created some very good chances on the left-hand side. When the cross came in, I was hoping that someone was going to tap it in. In the end, I saw him on the floor with people around complaining and the referee gave the penalty. He was in a very good position, very close, so I would think that he had a clear view on it and made a decision.

on whether there’s a bit of relief after leaving it late…

You would like to score earlier and have a little bit of control over the last few minutes. It shows that when you are in a game, if you keep working towards scoring a goal and try to find a way to break them down [you can]. I think that we persisted because Burnley were very well organised and they defended really well. In the first half they created more chances and put us under pressure, while in the second half we improved our performance and I thought that was the key.

on whether we really had to earn that win today…

Yes I believe so because it’s not easy for anybody to come here. They are very well organised and they play simple football in a way, but they play it really well. You have to say that it’s no accident they’re so dangerous at home, because they use the long ball very well, they have good link-up play after that and they create a lot of chances from the sides. They have big players up front with a good presence in the box, and we had to make sure that we were up to the task. In the first half we were and in the second half we improved. We pushed them deeper into their half and then pretty much locked them there for the second half. That made the biggest difference and in the end we were rewarded for the pressure.

on whether he’s pleased with the clean sheet in difficult conditions…

I have to say that I like conditions like this because the pitch is very quick and when you pass the ball, the game has a good flow. You just need to be careful when it’s very wet because when you catch the ball you have to make the right decision. I think it’s much better for the game than if you have a dry pitch.