Robert Sanchez has praised the Brighton & Hove Albion defence after he celebrated reaching a milestone in his Albion career.
The Spanish goalkeeper kept his tenth clean sheet in just 23 Premier League appearances on Saturday after a 2-0 win over Leeds United.
And with four games to go, he is determined to end the season strongly and help Brighton to establish a new top-flight points record.
"Even better than I expected"
“I am really happy to now have ten clean sheets,” Sanchez, who broke into the team in November, told the club’s website.
“Since I made my debut, my plan was to go game-by-game and do the best I could. But, to be honest, it has been even better than I expected and I am really happy about that. But now I need to keep going and playing well at this level.
“I think the pass with Dunky (Lewis Dunk) showed how well the defensive block works and communicates, whether that be Dunky, Adam Webster, Dan Burn, Ben White and Joel Veltman.
“They are always ready for every action and if someone is not there the other will fill in and try to help each other. But also we keep going mentally for 90 minutes which is helping us to keep these clean sheets.”
Saturday’s win lifted the Seagulls up to 14th in the table, onto 37 points and five more from their last four games would break last season’s Premier League record of 41.
"Always targets to aim for"
“To do that would be unbelievable,” added Sanchez. “That has to be our aim now. We’re not going to relax because there are always targets to aim for.
“Wolves will be a really tough game but we are feeling positive and confident. We’re not able to relax yet, and we know as a squad we can always do more in each game and that is what drives us on.”
"Lovely gesture"
Sanchez was named in the Spain squad for the first time last month, and the official letter from the Spanish FA was framed and presented to him after the Leeds game.
“It is a nice memory for me and a lovely gesture by the club,” commented the goalkeeper.