Villas-Boas sticking to guns

Almost a week has gone by since the Blues' controversial 3-1 loss at Old Trafford but Villas-Boas is still smarting over the fallout from the game.

Declaring would never waver in his attacking approach, Villas-Boas said: "I would do the same all of the season."

The former Porto boss, who had not lost a league match as a manager for 17 months prior to Sunday, began this week by venting his frustration at the performance of the officials in Manchester, revealing he had made a complaint to referees' chief Mike Riley.

Friday saw Villas-Boas turn his guns on Hansen after being branded "naive" in the former Liverpool captain's newspaper column on Monday.

Admitting that was a risky strategy at a club like Chelsea, where a failure to win trophies has always seen the manager sacked, he said: "We are here to take risks in life, no?"

The Portuguese added: "You cannot be so closed minded not to understand that a club like Chelsea, the most important thing is to win trophies. We aren't putting the attacking path, the good football path, ahead of the results but we're trying to mix it together.

"It's a more difficult path but you can win trophies as well. You can take various different ways in football and be extremely successful."

Describing Hansen's assessment of Sunday's match as "completely false", Villas-Boas said: "It's just an unwillingness to make a correct comment on the game by having pleasure in criticising others."

He added: "People like that go against their own principles. They don't know what to say and they basically just live by lowering others, which I find quite extraordinary. It doesn't annoy me because I respect to the fullness the opinion of people. It's just when it's football people, I find it really strange."

Source: PA

Source: PA