Marcos Alonso: 'We have seven finals left'

He may arrived as an attempt to add depth to the team’s options at full back, but since securing a place in the Chelsea starting line-up with the switch to the 3-4-3 back in the fall, Marcos Alonso has been a key contributor. On Saturday he once again rose to the occasion not just on the defensive end, but by scoring his fifth goal of the season, setting a new career high in the process.

Chelsea now have seven matches left to achieve the fifteen points needed currently to mathematically guarantee the Premier League title, and the 26-year-old seems confident that the team knows what to do to see the task through.

"Every game we win is a strong message for the other teams. We’ve been there almost all season, we are showing we want to be there, we’re playing very good and fighting for it and that’s what we need keep doing."

"We knew the Tottenham score before the game so we knew we could only win, we knew it was going to be a tough game, but I think the team played a good 90 minutes and we got the three points."

"Someone said in the changing room [beforehand] that we know the most important thing is our result, that’s what we have to focus on, especially in training during the week to be ready for the game."

Alonso is one of the few members of the squad without a major senior title to his name and he’s no doubt looking forward to being able to lift the trophy high above his head come May. The closest he’s come so far was the 2013-14 League Cup final with Sunderland, when they lost to Manchester City. Now he has seven more finals to contest, and perhaps a couple more in the FA Cup as well.

"I think the team does well whenever we have pressure on us. We know what we are playing for, motivation is 100 percent and I think we played a good game. The group is fantastic. We all know where we are going, we are all going in the same direction and that’s very important."

"The starting XI and the players who are not playing so much, the staff are all together and that’s very important. That’s a big thing and it’s going very well this year."

“We have seven finals left, every game is going to be massive, we are going to have to play each game as the last one because we need the points to get closer to the title."

-Marcos Alonso; Source: London Evening Standard

The pressure’s on! This is where heroes are confirmed.