Interview: Cahill picks Matic as Chelsea's go-to man in title win
Interview: Cahill picks Matic as Chelsea's go-to man in title win
"There have been numerous individual displays to talk about, but I think we should single out one of Nemanja Matic's," said Gary Cahill.

The club anthem "Blue is the Colour" resounded around the jam-packed Stamford Bridge as Chelsea lifted their first Premier League title in five years after a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace.

The stadium, amidst the anthem, saw a heartwarming huddle by John Terry and his men with the manager Jose Mourinho greeting the crowd with claps.

Chelsea had dominated the season from the beginning. And among all the stars, Gary Cahill was one of the players celebrating his first league title.

Cahill, who was signed by Chelsea in mid-January 2012 from Bolton Wanderers and given the number 24 shirt, has scored just one goal in his 34 appearances. But his fierce tackling and defending on the ground has made him one of the key players in the Blues fold.

The 29-year-old has now won the Premier League, the FA Cup and the League Cup as well as the Champions League and the Europa League.

The defender shared his experience with IBNLive Sports on being with Chelsea and lifting his first EPL title with the team.

How was the feeling after winning the EPL title?

You work day in, day out to get to this point. It's the best feeling ever. It's unbelievable. A lot of the lads were talking at the start saying it was a long time since we'd won it. We got a sense that it was the most important trophy to win in a way. Really happy to win first of mine. Great feeling.

Chelsea dominated the season from the start of the season. Which victory will you rate as memorable?

Swansea away, 5-0. Other than the obvious reasons, that we scored five and conceded zero, we started the game so well and I felt it was the best we played as a team.

As a defender, I was on the halfway line for a long period of that game, just watching what was going on in front of us. Football-wise, we produced some great stuff that day. So I would say it was probably our best display.

Another big performance, for me and the team, was the Capital One Cup final against Tottenham. After what happened in the away game against them in the league, when everyone made such a big deal out of just one match, it was nice to put that to bed with a 2-0 victory in a big game. Obviously, the 5-3 defeat was a big league fixture, but a cup final is a cup final and the way we went about that was great. From a defensive point of view, we didn't concede, which was good, and we won the game, so I would mention that performance as well.

What was the turning point in Chelsea's campaign?

It's hard to pick out a turning point when we have been top of the league for more or less the whole season. I wouldn't use the term 'turning point', but there were two bad results in January, against Tottenham away and Bradford at home. If you look at how many games you play in a season, you are going to have the odd blip here and there, but we have had very few bad results like that.

There was a response every time we had a disappointing result. After our first loss, to Newcastle, we responded with five straight wins, and after the defeat at Tottenham, we won our next three games without conceding a goal. After going out of the FA Cup to Bradford, we won the second leg of the Capital One Cup semi-final against Liverpool to make it to Wembley. This is the thing. The response from any setbacks this season has been one of the reasons we were successful.

Which player in your team impressed you a lot?

There have been numerous individual displays to talk about, but I think we should single out one of Nemanja Matic's. Eden Hazard won PFA Player of the Year, and rightly so, but I think Matic had been right up there throughout the whole season. If I had to pick out one, I might mention one of the games against our title rivals because he was brilliant in the big games, like Liverpool and Man City away. He was immense at Stoke, when we went there for what could have been a difficult game and got a 2-0 win at a vital moment in the season. Undoubtedly, he was team's go-to-man.

The season saw many hard-fought wins for Chelsea. Which one was your favourite?

The 6-3 win over Everton away was a crazy game. That was a tough win because we're not used to that kind of madness in a game where it's a case of they score, we score, they score, we score. It just seemed like one of those crazy one-off games where you have to keep going and get the win. Every time it felt like we had finished the job, they came back and scored again, so maybe that would be the hardest-fought win.

What was the key to Chelsea's success this season?

When you are up there at the top, like we have been, those are the games that always feel as though they can provide pivotal moments which change things. So the pressure is there for those games.

Us [Chelsea] and Manchester City cancelled each other out with two draws this season and that benefited us ultimately. In fact, this season, we haven't lost to any of the really big teams, which is vital when you are competing with them. When you play the top boys, the big boys in the league, it's so important not to lose and that's what has happened this season.

The latest edition of the official Chelsea magazine is available here

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