Mikaël Silvestre made his presence felt in the Chennaiyin FC back line.Chennaiyin FC defender and former France international Mikaël Silvestre hailed the performance of his team after the depleted visitors beat hosts Mumbai City FC 0-3 at the DY Patil Stadium on Sunday night to open up a three point lead at the top of the table. The visitors surprisingly managed this feat without three key players who are nursing injuries -- Elano Blumer, John Stiven Mendoza and Gouramangi Singh. Even player-head coach Marco Materazzi decided to sit this one out.“Mumbai has been defensively solid since they conceded five against us, they’ve been really solid, especially at home. They were waiting for us to make a mistake, we made some, but luckily we didn’t concede any goals so the clean sheet is great for the team,” Silvestre told indiansuperleague.com in a post-match exclusive. The former Manchester United stalwart has been an integral part of the Chennai defence, and his positioning, tackling and blocks along with his reading of the game were crucial to the clean sheet that the visitors recorded today. “Three goals without Elano and Mendoza is great confidence booster for the team,” he added.Silvestre hailed the performance of Bruno Pelissari, who has come into the squad since Elano’s injury and scored two goals in two games for the southern side. “He’s done well in his place, he can give us the final pass, he’s got the ability and the movement and today he was just fantastic.” He also praised the two Indian forwards, Jeje Lalpekhlua and Balwant Singh, saying, “The work ethic defensively from Jeje and Balwant was just fantastic.”“For me I think the performances of the strikers stood out today. I know for a fact, as they’ve been giving me a hard time in training. They were pressing hard, that’s all they’ve been doing, especially for the first goal,” the Frenchman noted.Silvestre trailed off by revealing the team’s targets for the remainder of the group stage. “The table changes all the time and we want to be at the top till the end, that’s our target. We also have two away games now, it’s going to be difficult, but we’ll make sure we play with a similar attitude.”Chennaiyin FC travel to Guwahati next on November 27 to take on the Highlanders, and at this stage in the competition look well placed to end the group stages on a high.
