Nemanja Matic believes last month’s heavy defeat at the Emirates to Arsenal was a “wakeup call” for his team. The Chelsea player was speaking after Sunday’s 4-0 victory over Manchester United, their third win in a row after losing to Arsène Wenger’s side.
“You know sometimes you need to lose the game to wake up,” said Matic. “The Arsenal game was a wakeup call for us. We knew that we had to do better, to want more, and we did that. It’s easy to say we needed to work harder but after Arsenal we knew we had to show that we had quality, and we have done that in the last three games. We have showed quality, we don’t concede, and we score goals.”
Matic argued that the ease of Sunday’s victory proves the Stamford Bridge team have the necessary qualities to be a threat to any of their Premier League rivals. “This was a moment to show we can compete with every team,” he said.
“I’m very happy because of that. Of course we don’t forget that we lost against Arsenal, against Liverpool. But of course the table shows that we are there, we are near. We will try and continue like this. I think at the moment we are playing very good. It’s not easy to win 4-0 against a strong team like Manchester is. We won a big game.
“I think it was a good game. We knew it was going to be a hard game but we opened the game very well and after the Pedro goal it was easier for us to play with more confidence. I am very happy with the performance of the team.”
In answer to the question of whether his side had a point to prove to their ex-manager, José Mourinho, Matic replied: “Every game is big motivation for us. We play for a big club, It doesn’t matter against which team we play. He was our coach and we respect him, me especially. He brought me back from Benfica. I have to say I have great respect for him.”
