A clean sheet at Southampton is never an easy thing to achieve so it was no surprise that Lukasz Fabianski was focusing on that when he reflected back on yesterday's 0-0 draw at St Mary's to open the Premier League season.
The big Pole kept a clean sheet on the opening day despite the home side having 29 attempts at goal. Despite that huge total though only 2 of them were on target when you looked at the end of match statistics demonstrating just what Fab was referring to when he praised the defensive display.
"Playing away from home against Southampton is always tough,” said Fabianski.
"This was the first game of the season and it’s very different to the friendly games.
"From the other games today, not many teams kept a clean sheet so it was very important for us to show the other side of our game.
"Even though going forward we didn’t create many chances and play the way we wanted to, to not lose the game was important.
"Keeping clean sheets always keeps you in the game. Even though we didn’t create too much going forward I think you have to look at the character and spirit of the team — that is what got us a point."
The Swans will have to improve overall as a team but it is difficult to argue with praise for the defence in this performance and the clean sheet continues the good defensive form we showed at the back end of last season.