Fulham head coach Marco Silva applauded the application of his players after Fulham followed up their SW6 derby win with a battling performance at Stamford Bridge to take four points out six off their local rivals.

The Whites delivered a classical away display, full of tactical organisation, determination and no little quality to nullify all of the Blues’ new big-money signings and fully deserved a share of the spoils. Silva told FFCTV after the final whistle that the passionate reaction of the away fans meant everything to him and his coaching staff:

“It is everything what we wanted from the first day [in charge]: to make them [the fans] proud and to believe more and more in ourselves. I know how important this game is for them. We know as well. To show the quality and the ambition to get four points out of six from our neighbours is a fantastic feeling for them. For us, to be honest, it is another point – clearly for us, it is another point, it is not something that will make us over the point even if you knew before the match it would be difficult.”

The Portuguese head coach hailed the hard work of his team, who frustrated Graham Potter’s side with a combination of honest endeavour and consistent quality on the counter attack that could easily have delivered a winning goal on another night.

“There is a huge difference off the pitch. We knew with our quality, with our organisation, with the ambition of our players you can reduce that huge, huge difference off the pitch and the players they did it. I have to give all the credit to them because they did it in a fantastic way. I ask them, apart from the organisation and the gameplan, we have to come here to play. We did that twice against Chelsea and they did it from the first minute.”

Silva shrugged off the importance of reaching 400 matches in management by insisting that he will always remember how proud he was of Fulham’s performance tonight:

“The main thing about about this evening – and my four hundredth game as a manager – is that I was proud of my players. When you are a manager, it is the main thing for you. If you are proud of them, the way they work, the way they behave, the way they play, it is the main thing. For sure, I will remind [myself] of that.”