David Wagner had only good things to say about how his Huddersfield Town side beat Brighton & Hove Albion at the John Smith's Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Steve Mounié scored a first half brace, his first goals since his opening weekend double at Crystal Palace, to seal the points in what many described as a crucial six-pointer against Chris Hughton's men.
"Deserved win, deserved result"
Responding to questioning suggesting that it was the perfect match for Huddersfield, David Wagner could only agree:
“Yes, from my point of view there is very little to moan about, to be honest. I think it was a very good overall performance from the defence to the offence and from the stands to the grass. There was energy, desire, everything that we wanted to show and I am absolutely delighted for the players and very proud, because we said before the game we have to make sure we make ourselves independent from all the things happening around us which we are able to influence.
"We have to focus on ourselves and trust and believe in the talent and quality of the players. If we want to have wins in the Premier League, we have to over perform and I think the players have done this today. At the highest level, they created very good moments and they [Brighton] are a strong defence as well.
"Deserved win, deserved result and yes, I am very proud.”
Happy with striking options
The Terriers' boss expressed how thrilled he was that club record signing Steve Mounié was back in the goals at such a crucial period in the season:
“Yes, absolutely [I'm thrilled]. He had a difficult period with his injury which, to be honest, we all had the feeling that he would be able to perform like he has done today, because in the last two weeks he has looked very good in training. We are very happy we have him back at his best, and also Laurent Depoitre, another very good striker, ahead of the busy period ahead of us – both of them are healthy and fit and Steve, for sure, was a threat today.
"All of the offensive players, even though they did not score, were very dangerous and we were able to create a lot of good, dangerous opportunities which we unfortunately did not use. But offensively, for sure, this was one of our strongest performances of the season so far.”
Fully focused on Chelsea visit
Wagner was quick to laugh off talk of Chelsea taking note of Huddersfield's performance so soon after their shock 1-0 defeat at West Ham United earlier on in the day, but emphasised his squad's mindset heading into Tuesday's mammoth clash:
“I am not sure if Chelsea will be focusing on us too much but what I can say is we will be focusing on Chelsea. We watched them as well before our game so now we will only enjoy this evening after this great performance, not only the result because the performance was very strong as well, and tomorrow we start to get very focused on Chelsea which is in front of us on Tuesday.”
Attack is the best form of defence
Some would've been surprised by how attacking the West Yorkshire club set-out to be right from the get-go in the second half, and Wagner confirmed his plan as such a tactically-positive boss:
“Yes. The idea was, first of all, the higher we pressed, the further away the ball was from our goal and this why we were still on the front foot and in their face in the second half. We wanted to score a third goal because then the game would be over, that was our aim. Apart from not scoring the third goal, I think a lot of things in the second half worked. We created these moments, we created these opportunities and they always looked like we probably would score the third goal.
"At the end, as I said, it was a deserved result and a very good performance. I’m absolutely delighted and we’ve seen again how important it is to get the energy from the stands, the supporters were outstanding again, and this is exactly what we need to make sure our home record can continue.”