London: Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas has insisted his side are still in the Premier League title race after their 1-1 draw with Tottenham at White Hart Lane, and also praised the performance of under-fire captain John Terry.
The Blues came from behind to grab a point against Harry Redknapp's high-flying Spurs as Daniel Sturridge's strike cancelled out Emmanuel Adebayor's opener.
After the game, the 34-year-old boss expressed his belief that his side could still take the Premier League title, despite the result leaving them 11 points behind league leaders Manchester City.
He told reporters: "If we take six points from our next two home fixtures, I think we will be pretty much in it. We came to face a Tottenham side who are title challengers and it’s always a good point to get. We were in a worse position before and recovered, and I’m fairly sure we can further shorten the distance."
Villas-Boas went on to dismiss the result as irrelevant given the dominance he believes his side exerted at a tough ground to visit.
He added: "For me it’s one of those days when the result really doesn’t matter. The performance was outstanding, regardless of the result, and I will leave White Hart Lane extremely satisfied. Getting a point today, with Tottenham on the run they have been on and with what happened during the game, is excellent in terms of our league challenge."
"If you had proposed to me at the start of December that we would go through this run of fixtures with two wins and two draws, I would have taken it. Today we showed our character and personality, with excellent resilience and adaptation to the circumstances."
"I also think our passing game exploded today to wonderful levels. It is fantastic to watch this team play when they find each other in possession like they did, and from that possession create opportunities."
"I think it was outstanding, it was remarkable, and I think that if there had been a fair result - even though I would have taken a win, a defeat or a draw the same - it should have been a Chelsea win."
"[The slow start] is the only thing we can really regret. If we had established our game a little bit earlier, we would have taken the three points. But we suffered in the beginning and then showed our character to get back into the game."
The Portuguese also hailed captain John Terry who played despite this week being charged by the police for allegedly racially abusing QPR's Anton Ferdinand during a Premier League game in October.
Villas-Boas continued: "He is a fantastic player whose commitment, quality and talent is never in doubt. He is completely focused on the cause of the club, and his performances have not dropped a single level."
"Since [the Anton Ferdinand incident] his levels have increased. His commitment and concentration are fantastic, and we have seen some great performances from him recently."
The Blues boss also addressed recent rumours linking Chelsea with Bolton Wanderers centre-back Gary Cahill, refusing to rule out a move for the highly-rated Englishman.
He said: "He is an extremely interesting player whose contract will terminate soon. But I cannot speculate on a player who doesn’t belong to me. It’s not fair to [Bolton manager] Owen Coyle with the December fixtures he faces, or to the focus of the player. He is an extremely talented player, but we would be stupid if we narrowed our targets to one."
"We will be in the market for a centre-half. That is pretty obvious, considering we have accepted Alex’s transfer request - it doesn’t mean [a transfer] will happen, but we need to wait until the market opens to find out."
Comments
0 comment