Capital One Cup victory and trophy no.14!

How convenient is it to win a trophy already at this stage of the season?
It feels great for all of us and it’s mainly important for our morale. We won the first trophy we even had the opportunity to win and that will certainly boost our confidence for the next part of the season. When we won the League Cup back in 2005, we were able to win in the Premier League, too. Let’s hope that will work out this time round, as well. In any case it’s quite reassuring to have secured one trophy already, it’s a bit of a stress relief. If we do manage to get another one, it’ll be fantastic.
There is currently only three of you on the team who have won the League Cup three times already.
We’re the only ones to have stayed in the club since 2005. I’m over the moon about the fact that we’ve held on long enough to witness a hattrick, though it had taken quite a while…
Did you think back to the 2008 final in which Tottenham defeated you?
Not really. There’s no point in looking back. When it comes to finals, the main thing is to win, not just to take part. Tottenham beat us in the Premier League this season already, but in that competition is made up of 38 games and so you can always rectify whatever mistakes you’ve made. There’s only one final though. If you mess it up you’re going to have to wait at least a year for another chance - if you even qualify for the final, that is.
The final was fairly straight-forward this time.
We were well-prepared. We also defended efficiently and wouldn’t let Tottenham have too much of a go at it. When we scored the opening goal towards the end of the first half we composed ourselves a little, which was quite apparent in the second half. We finished off relatively relaxed, after all we do have the more experienced team.
Are you happy about getting to be a part of this?
I was happy to find out I’d been nominated for the starting line-up. It was a final and we all wanted to win it. I hope to have repaid the manager’s trust by maintaining a clean sheet and us ultimately winning the Cup.
This is your 14th trophy at Chelsea. Any comments on that number?
It’s really decent. A funny coincidence actually - it was exactly this Cup that we won when I first joined ten years ago. And what do you know, ten years later here we are again. I’m truly honoured to be a part of one of the best teams in the world.
This season has been going quite well for you. How would you evaluate your chances for title in the Premier League?
We should still hope that we’ll be able to come out on top but there’s 12 games left and we’re talking a lot of points. We’re facing West Ham on Wednesday and it’d be beneficial to beat them. City could have made up some ground on us yesterday but they lost in Liverpool and therefore we now have a chance to increase our lead.
How are you going to celebrate your Capital One Cup victory?
Nothing major. We took a couple of pictures with the Cup and the fans, had some champagne in the changing rooms but then we were off to Chelsea and dispersed after one glass. We had training today, are moving to the hotel on Tuesday and playing on Wednesday. No time for celebrations at the moment.