Wanyama lifted by first start since November

Victor Wanyama hopes his solid derby shift can kick-start his season.

The central midfield battler came in for only his second league start of the campaign – and his first in all competitions since 10 November – in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Arsenal at Wembley.

Plagued by knee problems over the last year, it couldn’t have been a much more demanding stage for the 27-year-old to make his return on, but he produced a committed performance alongside the in-form Moussa Sissoko as we took a well-earned point following a difficult week that saw us suffer back-to-back defeats to Burnley and Chelsea.

While the result perhaps restored an element of confidence for the rest of the team, on a personal level, the way the whole day panned out certainly lifted Victor’s spirits after a self-confessed “very hard” spell on the sidelines.

“This was my first start for a very long time and it’s a tough game to come into, but I had to go in and get on with the game,” said the Kenyan international.

“Just getting the start and being back in the team, it gave me a lot of confidence and from today I can only be positive.

“It’s been very hard to deal with (being out of action) but I just always try to keep my mind positive and focus on what’s good. What I cannot control, I have to just let it be. It is what it is but I’ve stayed positive, it’s a good run of minutes for me this weekend and hopefully I can take it from here.”

The midfield areas were always going to be key against a Gunners side looking to chase us down in third place but, with Harry Winks missing, Victor felt we kept things largely under control.

“It was a tough game, coming from also a tough period,” he added. “It was difficult in there, they had a lot of bodies in the middle but we tried hard to break them down.

“You could see they were defending from the box but I think we did well.

“We fought hard and at the end of the day we got a draw and it’s not a bad result in the circumstances.”