Andre Villas-Boas is a happy man.
Fresh from a less than impressive 0-1 win at Portsmouth, the Portuguese manager, pictured right, above, cuts a confident posture and talks a confident game.
“I was not disappointed,”he said.
That must come as a bit of a surprise to the watching 19,325 who would have expected a victory by a greater one than the own goal created by Fernando Torres’s regularity right byline cross which somehow fell to the hapless ex-Chelsea centre-back Tal Ben Haim, pictured left above with a fan after the game, who powerfully headed past Stephen Henderson after seven minutes.
The floodgates were open but no Chelsea Blue wave rushed through.
“It a difficult ground to come to,” he added by way of an explanation.
“There were some positives and some negatives,” he continued.
“But mostly positive and everyone had a run out.”
Indeed they did, Chelsea changed the whole team in the second half.
“We can still do better,” he suggested. Well that should not be difficult.
Improvement with possession of the ball and in tight areas between lines and sectors were offered as elements of their game they need to get right in the coming weeks.
Now most of us don’t have top-quality coaching badges, so sectors might require a bit of an explanation in due course – I’ll ask him.
Torres and Didier Drogba played in alternative halves and never the twain did meet – but that did not stop Villas-Boas from emphasising, when asked, that there was “no situation” and both players can play together in the same team.
“We played 4:3:3, which are what we are working on, we will play with two forwards” he added.
“Everyone takes a personal view on this – but when Torres scores, Drogba scores, Kalou, Sturridge, Anelka scores it gives players confidence – it comes in time – it’s no drama.”
So, it’s all about confidence – and that takes us neatly back to Villas-Boas, he’s one confident guy – now it’s just needs the players to follow suit.
Portsmouth should have scored – Henrique Hilario conceded and then saved a penalty from Luke Varney before cocking up twice with his centre-backs allowing the home side a sniff at an empty net. Both times the Chelsea defence made last gasp challenges to preserve their clean sheet.
Teams:
Chelsea first half (4-3-3): Turnbull; Ferreira (c), Kalas, Ivanovic, Cole; B Clifford, Mikel, Zhirkov; Sturridge, Torres, Malouda.
Chelsea second half (4-3-3): Hilario; Bosingwa, Chalobah, Terry (c), Van Aanholt (Bertrand 71); Benayoun, McEachran, Lampard; Anelka, Drogba, Kalou.
Unused subs Magnay, Kaby, Lalkovic
Goals Ben-Haim og 6
Booked Hilario 60, Benayoun 87
Portsmouth (4-3-3):Henderson (Ashdown h-t); Ben-Haim, Halford (Pearce 50), Rocha (Williams 63), Hreidarsson (Magri 69); Norris, Mokoena (c), Mullins; Ward, Kitson (Stockford 80), Varney.
Goals
Booked
Attendance 19,345
Referee Keith Stroud