• What They Said

What They Said: Villas-Boas retains title belief

ESPN staff
November 26, 2011
Andre Villas-Boas left Frank Lampard on the bench for Chelsea's 3-0 victory over Wolves © Getty Images
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Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas declared his belief that the Blues can still win the Premier League title after Wolves were swept aside 3-0 at Stamford Bridge.

Goals from John Terry, Daniel Sturridge and Juan Mata moved Chelsea to within nine points of Manchester City, and Villas-Boas took confidence from the result: "I think we can [win the title]. We have most of the same players [who have won the title before]. We have the talent and belief will be the last thing to die with us. Man City play tomorrow in a difficult game [at Liverpool]. In the past we have seen examples of us shortening distances but for that example to serve as inspiration we need to get the winning streak back like we did last year."

Villas-Boas faced plenty of media pressure after losses to Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen in the last week, and he admits the pressure is still on: "It does not take the pressure off me. We have to continue to grow as a team," the Portuguese said. "In recent games we did not deserve to lose, but it influences opinions and that is part of the job."

Wolves boss Mick McCarthy was left to reflect on a dire performance: "It was not good enough from us," he said. "At half-time I asked them to salvage a bit of pride and self-respect. Our fans were fabulous. They paid £50 and at least we gave them something to cheer, although we did not brighten their experience too much, at least we gave them something to cheer about in the second half."

Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp heaped praise on Jermain Defoe after the England forward scored the winner in a 3-1 triumph at West Brom: "We lost Rafael [van der Vaart] with a hamstring injury but Jermain has been in fantastic form. We had a reserve game on Tuesday and he got five goals against Charlton and he looked so sharp. Some of his play in the second half today was fantastic."

Albion have now conceded four penalties in the last five games after Emmanuel Adebayor's equaliser for Spurs, and Baggies coach Roy Hodgson struggled to hide his frustration: "I don't want to be talking about penalties. You make your own mind up. I'm not prepared to talk about it. We've had more penalties given against us, I think, than any other team. I see players go down in our penalty areas after challenges which don't look particularly vicious. Then I see our players go down in the penalty area which don't look vicious. The referee makes the decision which he thinks are the ones to give and not the ones to give."

Blackburn boss Steve Kean chose to ignore the calls for his resignation following Rovers' 3-1 loss to Stoke: "I put it to the back of my mind. I am focused on the job," he said. "I think if there are a few fans shouting then they can shout what they want. They can voice their frustrations; we are frustrated we didn't get anything from this game so I can share their frustrations. All I want to do is for the fans to go home happy because they have seen us winning and play well."

Opposite number Tony Pulis, who saw Stoke's four-match losing streak in the league ended, offered Kean some advice: "I've been fortunate - or unfortunate - to be a manager for a long time and it is a lonely job when it is not going well,'' he said. "The most important thing you learn and you have to focus on is you cannot affect what happens outside your club. What you can affect is the players and the performances and you have to concentrate really hard - and that is difficult."

Franco Di Santo won it for Wigan in injury-time © Getty Images
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Steve Bruce stood defiant despite Sunderland's 2-1 loss to Wigan, saying: "I have never given up on anything, certainly not in football anyway. Certainly, my intention is not to walk away or quit. That's certainly not in my nature either. There's something in me which says I will try to turn it around. We are finding it very, very difficult at the moment. Patience in football doesn't last very long, but as far as my future is concerned, that's up to others. Certainly I have got no intention of walking away or trying to quit or anything like that. It's certainly not in my nature."

Wigan boss Roberto Martinez, who saw his side win it in injury-time, confessed he expected Franco Di Santo's goal to be chalked off: "I expected it to be offside. With the bad luck we have been having, I expected the flag to go up."

QPR boss Neil Warnock had a serious complaint to make about the Premier League after he was forced to put 20-year-old goalkeeper Elvijs Putnins on the bench in the 2-1 defeat to Norwich: "Paddy [Kenny] has a bit of a strained muscle on his side. We don't actually know [how serious it is]. It could be four weeks, it could be six weeks or two months. The other lad [Murphy], four to six weeks. Paddy got injured last week and we asked the Premier League if we could sign an emergency keeper. They talked about it for two days and then told us that we had to bring back a lad from Boreham Wood who has never played in the reserves, who we gave a free transfer to [but retained on a non-contract basis]. If not, then we had to play a 17-year-old that has not played a reserve game yet, which I think is absolutely scandalous not to get any help."

Norwich boss Paul Lambert was quick to downplay his role in the match after substitutes Grant Holt and Wes Hoolahan linked up for the winner. "It's the players that go and do it. They are the most important people at the club along with the people that come and watch it. I have trust when we go on the field of play that they are going to perform and I've done that for the past two years. I have trusted them and they have just been a brilliant, brilliant group to work with."

David Moyes is hoping Everton can put a run together after their 2-0 win at Bolton: "We have been slow starters in the past, although I didn't actually think we had started slow this year. We lost the first game, but we got a few points on the board. Then we had a run of fixtures with a lot of the big teams in a row, but I hope this is the start of us picking up, because we normally do and when we do, we tend to stay on it and go with it."

Bolton boss Owen Coyle - whose side suffered their 10th league defeat this term and remained in the relegation zone - said he was not surprised to see David Wheater dismissed given the nature of the challenge: "David took a bad touch, there is no getting away from that, and he tried to recover it. I think the rules are in place that if your studs are showing, you leave yourself wide open to a red card and watching it in real time, I certainly feel he did lead with his studs."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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