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Villas-Boas praises focus of Terry

John Terry leads the way for Chelsea © PA Photos

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Andre Villas-Boas heaped praise on under-pressure skipper John Terry after his last-gasp intervention prevented Chelsea from losing to Tottenham at White Hart Lane on Thursday.

Terry learned just 24 hours earlier that he will be charged by the Criminal Prosecution Service for alleged racist comments he made towards Anton Ferdinand during the west London derby at QPR in October.

Despite receiving unwanted attention from the home support throughout the Spurs match, the defender put in a solid display at the back and denied Emmanuel Adebayor's goal-bound effort at the death. Villas-Boas has continued to support to Terry, who has vowed to clear his name, since the race row erupted and continued to do so after the match.

"His performances, commitment and concentration have increased since the incident and he anticipated the situation at the end there tonight. It was a big opportunity for Tottenham," Villas-Boas said.

"His quality and talent are never in doubt. He's completely focused to the cause of this football club."

Villas-Boas' team now sit 11 points behind Premier League leaders Manchester City, but still thinks his team's chances of claiming the title are alive.

"I think we can still win it," said Villas-Boas. "We came to Tottenham, a side who are title challengers, so it's a good point to get. We've been in worse situations before and recovered to seven points. I'm sure we can shorten the distance."

Tottenham have lost just one of their past 13 games, and took the lead through Adebayor in the eighth minute.

However, Daniel Sturridge got Chelsea back in the game soon after and the visitors continued to threaten, going close to winning the game through Ramires, who should have buried a header when unmarked inside the box towards the end of the second half.

"The result really doesn't matter," Villas-Boas said. "The performance was outstanding. If a ball had gone into our net in the last minute, I would have left satisfied.

"We didn't lose two points. Coming here with Tottenham on the run they're on, with the form they're showing in the league, to get a point is excellent. If you had said at the beginning of December that we'd go through these games with two wins and two draws, I'd have taken it running into the home fixtures.

"Our second half was brilliant. For us to impose ourselves as we did is extremely gratifying."

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