Jonas Olsson hoping to keep starting spot for Chelsea

Jonas Olsson is hoping he has done enough to keep his starting spot after helping Albion get off the mark with a draw at Watford.

The Baggies picked up their first point of the campaign in a dour stalemate at Vicarage Road.more

Olsson was surprisingly recalled at the expense of Joleon Lescott and looked solid as Tony Pulis' men kept a clean sheet.

Now the Sweden international is hoping to be involved again when Premier League champions Chelsea visit The Hawthorns on Sunday.

"I was disappointed to be left out in the first game but I'm back in the starting XI now and hopefully I did enough to keep it for the next game," said the Sweden international.

"It's nice (to play), of course. I thought I had quite a good end to last season with the games at Old Trafford and at home to Chelsea sticking out."

Olsson felt Albion could be satisfied with Saturday's result and the way they defended after conceding three against Manchester City.

[comments_cta header="What do you think?" text= "Should Jonas Olsson keep his place?" button="Log in and start commenting"]

"It's always tough when a team's been promoted and it's their first home game and they want to make their mark," he added.

"The gaffer wasn't particularly pleased at half-time but second half we were on the front foot and had one or two chances to get the three points.

"It's a point, a clean sheet and the season is up and running, so I'm reasonably pleased.

"We defended well and stuck to our game plan. We spoke about the shape and trying to find a way back to that.

"That's what we built on last season, I think we had 10 clean sheets out of 18 with this gaffer last year.

"If you keep clean sheets you'll get points and hopefully we can take this into our next game, which will be a tough one, but one where we can hopefully do well and show the supporters we can compete with the bigger teams."

n Under-21 boss James Shan has challenged his players to go on another lengthy unbeaten run ahead of their first home game against West Ham this afternoon.

The youngsters enjoyed a number of undefeated spells last season, including a nine-game sequence during the middle part of the year.

The Baggies ended the previous campaign unbeaten in five matches, before winning their opening game of 2015/16 with a 2-1 win at Swansea on Monday night.

Shan says learning how to win games of football is crucial for the young players' development.

He said: "Winning is a part of players' journey and development process.

"It's vitally important that they learn how to win games and also manage games.

"We had some great unbeaten runs last season. It would be great to go on similar runs this year.

The Hammers encounter is now behind-closed-doors at the club's training ground instead of The Lamb, home of Tamworth FC.