Premier League: Gary Cahill feels Chelsea have found a new mental strength
Wednesday 3 December 2014 19:00, UK
Gary Cahill feels Chelsea have developed a mental strength as they continue their unbeaten start to the current campaign.
The 28-year-old defender was part of a Blues side which has kept clean sheets in their past three games, a 2-0 Premier League win over West Brom, a 5-0 Champions League success over Schalke and Saturday’s 0-0 draw at Sunderland.
While Chelsea were unable to break down the Black Cats they remain the top-flight pace setters and Cahill feels the stalemate was a signal of their newly-found resilience.
"I think we are a different side to last year, not just personnel, but mentally I think we are different,” he said.
"They made it a scrap, but we matched that and managed to play our football as well. When teams sit back and get back in that shape, it's very tough. We saw that last year and this was no different.
Trending
- World Darts Championship: Lukeman behind after Rydz's rapid win LIVE!
- Rashford left out of Man Utd squad to face Spurs after 'new challenge' comments
- Transfer Centre LIVE! 'Saudi could offer Rashford way out of Man Utd'
- World Darts Championship schedule: Smith in action on Thursday
- Five years of Arteta: Arsenal transformed but what's next?
- Usyk vs Fury 2: Start time, ring walks, undercard and odds
- Tottenham vs Man Utd: We'll see - Amorim on Rashford featuring vs Spurs
- The Friedkin Group complete Everton takeover
- Wolves appoint Pereira to succeed O'Neil
- How Fury will cope with first defeat
"But in these sorts of games, if you don't get the breakthrough, it's important we don't lose the game, and it's a point away from home."
Chelsea are unbeaten in 20 games from the start of the season but this was the first match of the campaign in which they have failed to score.
But Cahill was pleased with another clean sheet and a point from what proved to be just as tough an assignment as he had expected prior to the game.
Live UEFA Champions League
"It was a game in which we needed to defend well,” he said. “They defended well as well. It was exactly what we expected, it was a scrap of a game.
"They made it tough by, when we had possession, sitting back very deep, but they worked very hard, so credit to them, and they looked dangerous when they tried to hit us on the break, so we had to be on our toes and defend well.
"Unfortunately for us, we didn't manage to break through. If we had broken through, it's all of a sudden a different game because like we have seen before, they have to come out then and try to get the equaliser and it allows us to play a bit more.
"But credit to them, they did well and defended as a unit."
