Our left-back was one of two players in the back five who retained their place in the side for our opening Champions League tie after the 3-3 draw with Southampton on Saturday, along with Kurt Zouma, and admitted he felt the pressure to improve our defensive showing against the Spanish side at Stamford Bridge.

However, he feels that is something which goes with the territory of representing a big club like Chelsea, and was happy to respond with a clean sheet against difficult opponents.

‘I think the important thing there was the clean sheet,’ said Chilwell. ‘We knew people would be looking at us after conceding three goals on the weekend and defensively as a team we were solid today, against a very good team.

‘We’re a top team and when you’re playing for Chelsea you expect clean sheets and if you’re conceding a lot of goals you’re going to get criticism as a top team. So for us it was important that we keep working hard on the training pitch.

‘I think we showed that defensively we’re a very strong outfit. They’re one of the best teams in Europe and to get a clean sheet against a very good attacking side was positive.

‘We didn’t give them a lot of chances. It would have been nice to get a win at home but we’ll take the draw and a clean sheet.’

He also insisted the credit for that solid defensive performance should be shared among the whole team and not just the defenders.

‘In general as a team it was, I wouldn’t say comfortable, because there were moments where we were under pressure, but how organised we were, not just the back four and the goalkeeper but the whole team. The wingers and the midfielders were all putting a shift in for the defence. So defensively it was very good.’