The score was the same as that match at Spurs, 2-0 to the Blues, and Willian was again among the goals with Ross Barkley joining the Brazilian on the scoresheet this time, and Zouma contrasted performances like those two with some of the less successful ones recently. Team spirit he said was key to beating Liverpool.‘Everybody was fighting a lot for every ball, everyone running around and defending and attacking. It was a good game to watch I think and we did a very good game.‘Any clean sheet is good but especially against Liverpool. We know they have great players up front, they have a great team, and we did very well defensively and it is not just about defenders, all of us as a team played very well defensively, and offensively. We could have scored more.‘We did a good game but we need to stay focused because there are games when we can play good, and others when we are so-so. Maybe players are a bit tired, I don’t know, maybe we are not focused enough.‘Against Liverpool this is the mentality we need to keep every game. We have a very important game on Sunday [against Everton], we need to get the win at home and move on from there.’

Zouma added his voice to the chorus of admiration for the way 18-year-old Billy Gilmour went about his work in midfield against Liverpool, in what was only his third senior start.

‘Unbelievable performance, very mature in his game, and calm and clever as well with the ball and without the ball,’ said Zouma who is seven years older than Gilmour.‘He was fantastic, like he is training. He is training very good. He is very confident and he can keep the ball, he is running around and pressing the guys. He has a bright future ahead of him, he just needs to keep working hard.’

Read: Frank Lampard's viewpoint