Mendy made a string of superb saves to preserve the narrow advantage given to us by Ben Chilwell in first-half stoppage time, and he was quite rightly named man of the match after arguably his best performance in a Blues shirt.

‘I am happy with how I performed,’ stated Mendy.

‘It’s down to hard work. I prepared during the week with my team-mates and coaches to help the team, and I was able to do that.

‘We knew we were coming up against a very difficult team. They have shown that since they got promoted to the Premier League, especially at home against Arsenal and Liverpool. That makes it a really good result.

‘It was very hard. There was so much intensity in the game, and a great atmosphere. We had to suffer and we suffered together. We passed the hurdle together. It’s a positive and now we need to build on this momentum in the Champions League.’

Just as in our last league outing, against Southampton prior to the international break, Chelsea had to dig very deep to walk away with three precious points.

Mendy believes that resolve in adversity will stand us in good stead as we seek to mount a genuine title challenge this season.

‘We have shown a lot of character recently to win close games. There is always a lot of physical intensity in the Premier League and we have responded each time.

‘A team that wants to be at the top of the league all season has to has to sometimes find a way to win games, and we have done that.’