Premier League debut delight for Kevin

Kevin Wimmer admitted his sole focus when he came on for his Premier League debut was to help ensure we took all three points away from Crystal Palace.

Having made a handful of appearances for us in the cup competitions following his summer arrival from 1. FC Köln, the Austrian international centre-back was called into action on the domestic scene for the first time with a quarter-of-an-hour left at Selhurst Park on Saturday after Jan Vertonghen was forced off injured.

The match was finely poised at that stage and, while understandably delighted to get his first Premier League opportunity, Kevin said he knew what he had to do as we – ultimately successfully – went in search of maximum points.

“Honestly, it’s a great feeling to get my Premier League debut, although it was a very tough game,” said the 23-year-old, who dropped in alongside Toby Alderweireld in our eventual 3-1 win.

“When I came on it was 1-1, it was very close, but we wanted those three points and of course I tried everything to help the team with my performance.

“It’s never easy to come on as a defender for maybe 15 minutes. You have to be switched on from the first second you come onto the pitch.

“Crystal Palace tried a lot of long balls but, next to me, Toby helped me a lot. We spoke a lot in the game and so it was easier for me when I came on.”

The result saw us strengthen our position in fourth place, with Kevin underlining the team’s delight as we continued our winning momentum.

“I’m very happy that we won this game,” he added. “At first we were a bit lucky when they hit the frame of the goal twice but we played very well and we had some very good chances.

“Of course, there was an amazing goal by Dele (Alli), he nearly scored twice, Nabil (Bentaleb) had a great chance and then Nacer (Chadli) did very well and also scored an amazing goal.

“It was a very important win for us, a very important three points and of course we are all very happy.”