Chelsea´s ´great character´ key to Wembley win – David Luiz

David Luiz believes it was important that Chelsea showed their “great character” in a 2-1 win over Tottenham at Wembley after losing to Burnley on the opening weekend of their Premier League title defence.

The champions were 3-0 down against Burnley at Stamford Bridge, with a second-half fightback not enough to recover a point for Antonio Conte’s nine men.

But David Luiz saw a spirit in the closing stages of that defeat that Chelsea took into the clash with rivals Spurs to earn a huge win through Marcos Alonso’s double.

“The victory started in the second half of the first game against Burnley, because we did great then,” he told Sky Sports.

“It’s important to show character after a defeat. We had a great mentality and great character, especially as we didn’t start the league very well last week.

“Playing against a fantastic team, fantastic players, we deserved to win.”

88th minute winner. What a moment! #TOTCHE pic.twitter.com/45LJXcjNry

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) August 20, 2017

And David Luiz was particularly pleased with Chelsea’s game plan against Tottenham, acknowledging that they could not hope to dominate a side that had finished as runners-up last season.

“It was a clever game,” he added. “You need to understand, when you play against a very good team, sometimes you can keep more of the ball, but sometimes you need to try to surprise them on the counter-attack with one touch.

“I think we did great in a clever way.”