Xabi Alonso shares his thoughts after Chelsea ended their long wait for a Premier League clean sheet by winning 2-0 at Everton on Saturday

Xabi Alonso hopes that his Chelsea side have shaken off their soft touch tag after the manner of their 2-0 win over Everton at Hill Dickinson Stadium.

Everton hadn’t conceded in their previous three home games against Chelsea, but after losing 19 of their previous 41 Premier League away matches north of London over the past four years, the Stamford Bridge outfit triumphed thanks to a Pedro Neto brace while keeping their first clean sheet in the competition since they defeated Brentford by the same scoreline at home on January 17.

Former Liverpool midfielder Alonso, who was appointed on May 17, after previous spells in charge of Bayer Leverkusen and Real Madrid, said: “It’s adapting to the context. Today, we knew that Everton sometimes can come one by one, sometimes they can have plus one, so you need to choose how to be more efficient in your game.

“I’m really pleased with the performance, with the win and with the clean sheet. There are many positives to build from today.

“We knew that it was going to be a hard challenge to win in this stadium, but we did many things to deserve the win. I think that we got many things right, going through, very plain, very professional, very solid and it’s good to have this feeling to win this way.”

Asked if he was pleased with the character that Chelsea showed having been seemingly physically and emotionally intimidated on previous trips to Everton, Alonso said: “Absolutely, because we will have many of these ones. We needed to feel that we could win in this way, looking solid, playing solid, being strong, looking in control, going through difficult moments.

Make sure you never miss the latest Everton news and opinion by making Liverpool Echo one of your Google preferred sources.

“In the first half, there were moments when they were throw-ins/corners, corners/throw-ins and you need to overcome those moments and know that it’s very hard in the Premier League to have full control of the game during the whole minutes, but you don’t lose your shape. You’re going to lose your conviction of what the things you are doing but today we did that really well.

“We have spoken at half-time. The first goal was going to be key, to go either one way or the other.

“It went our way, but I think that was because we deserved that and I think that we played a very good game.”

In terms of this being a sign that his team were becoming the “mentality monsters,” he spoke about on his arrival, the 44-year-old added: “It’s one day. We need to repeat again and again and again to know.

“But for sure, the mentality was very good because we knew that it was not about playing nice. Sometimes it’s not just to play nice, it’s to play good, and we played good football. We won many duels and many second balls.

“We knew how to be efficient in different situations. So that’s something for the future we will build on from today’s game. We needed one of these with the clean sheet and with the win after the defeat in Brentford. The feeling was not that it was not enough and today has been better.

“It’s just one. It would be key when we are able to manage 10 clean sheets. The first one feels good. This one feels good and it was needed but now the goal is to be consistent and keep doing that.”