Dier upbeat after Palace appearance

Eric Dier was thankful for the chance to make a quick return to the starting line-up before departing for his summer break.

In impressive form at centre-back following the Premier League’s resumption in June, the England international was forced to sit out of this month’s consecutive wins against Arsenal, Newcastle and Leicester – plus the goalless draw at Bournemouth – through suspension.

Available for selection again for the last game of the season at Crystal Palace at the weekend, the 26-year-old was immediately restored to the starting line-up by Jose Mourinho as we drew 1-1 to leapfrog Wolves and secure a sixth place finish and Europa League spot for next term – something that pleased him greatly after a frustrating period of inactivity.

“I felt very good before the suspension, I felt like I was in a very good place,” said Eric. “Obviously it was not easy being out of the team for those four games, not really training much with the team as well because they’re playing-recovering-playing-recovering, so it was difficult.

“But I was really, really happy to play (at Palace) and have that feeling before going on holiday.”

Eric admitted he wasn’t entirely satisfied with our performance against an Eagles side that had been on a barren run of form, but recognised the importance of attaining our overall pre-match target.

“It’s job done – we got what we came for, not in terms of the result but obviously the league standing and we’re really happy,” he said. “To be in the Europa League next year is a minimum and we’ve got it.

“I think we managed the game okay, we got the goal, it was a bit disappointing in the way that we played in the first half after the goal, I think we sat off them too much and were a bit passive, but we saw it out and then in the second half we conceded a poor goal. From there, we were aware of the result in the other game (Wolves were losing to Chelsea) and we knew what we had to do.”