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What They Said: Villas-Boas excited to capture Cahill

Gary Cahill was present at Stamford Bridge © Getty Images

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Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas watched his side beat Sunderland 1-0 in front of Gary Cahill, who was at Stamford Bridge ahead of his expected transfer on Monday: "He adds to a very solid back four that we have," Villas-Boas said. "Gary is a player of tremendous technical qualities for a central defender, which is what we like because of our possession when we build up from the back. He has good stamina and a good sense of anticipation, which were the characteristics we were looking for and we managed to get an England international."

Villas-Boas, who rubbished reports that Chelsea have accepted an offer from QPR for Alex, also hailed the return of Michael Essien, who came off the bench to make his first appearance of the season following knee surgery. "To see a player that makes the switch so quick from a reserve-team game to full Premier League intensity in such a short time, it's amazing. You have to compliment our medical department. They've reduced for at least a month Michael's return to football. It's very, very gratifying for the team to have him back."

Frustrated Sunderland boss Martin O'Neill was adamant his side's penalty claim, for a foul on Nicklas Bendtner, was legitimate: "I had a quick flash before I came out at ours and ours is obviously a definite penalty. I've been told, certainly, that the first one (on Torres) at our end is not a penalty. We missed at least five really good opportunities and I think that's too many. I know scoring a goal is pretty difficult but it's not that difficult. A blundering fullback could've stuck a couple of those in - from about four leagues below."

Sir Alex Ferguson pointed out the crucial experience that Paul Scholes showed by scoring the first of Manchester United's three against Bolton: "We were looking for [Scholes] to control centre midfield which he did. But he's got the instinct, he's always had the instinct for a goal and he's probably said 'well half-time, I'll gamble' and he's opened the scoring for us and that could have been an important goal [in the course of the season]."

Ferguson also felt Zat Knight should have been sent off for his foul on Danny Welbeck that led to Wayne Rooney's missed penalty: "We should have been playing against 10 men,'' the Scot said. "But these inconsistencies are confusing to everyone. Referees have to be given direction about what are the laws of the game and what should be permitted in terms of tackles. [Referees' chief] Mike Riley has to be given the rope to say this is not allowed, two-footed tackles are not acceptable, whether you take the ball or not. If he does that it would clarify the situation for all players, the referees and the fans.''

Owen Coyle was not so happy about Scholes' goal, admitting Bolton gifted United the lead: "We looked as if we'd get in at half-time at 0-0 and we've shot ourselves in the foot with a soft goal so that was a disappointment. I thought the courage and performance which we showed in the second half in terms of taking the game to Manchester United showed that we have the belief that we can win games."

Coyle also gave his opinion on the outgoing Cahill, saying: "Do you ever want to lose a player of Gary Cahill's quality? No. But circumstances have brought it about and we wish him well. He is an outstanding player and an outstanding young man. Hopefully I can bring someone in, which we are very close to doing. We had Tim Ream in for a week and we would like him. We are close but we need to get an application in for a work permit so we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. We want to be respectful to the MLS but we are trying to bring it to fruition.''

Liverpool were frustrated by Stoke © Getty Images

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Harry Redknapp placed his focus on finishing in the top four after Tottenham's title hopes were badly dented by a 1-1 draw with Wolves: "If we can make the top four this year, it will be a fantastic achievement for us. It will be great to again have Champions League football at Tottenham. That is the aim. That is what we have got to try to do - make sure we again get that Champions League spot. Anything above that will be a bonus."

Wolves boss Mick McCarthy was left to single out the performances of Steven Fletcher and loan signing Emmanuel Frimpong: "He (Fletcher) is one of those rare commodities. A talented footballer who does everything else as well. He runs back for you, blocks shots and puts himself about," McCarthy said. "[Frimpong] is a terrific player. He certainly has energy, is a good player and puts his foot in. I think his reputation as a fine young player is already there and it will just get better if he is playing in the Premier League.''

Kenny Dalglish was left frustrated with referee Howard Webb after Liverpool's 0-0 draw at home to Stoke. Webb turned down numerous penalty appeals, particularly when Dirk Kuyt was held inside the area by Jonathan Woodgate: "It is difficult to understand when he talks to the players and explains something to them and then they commit the same crime immediately after it,'' Dalglish said. "I think we have stopped trying to work out the logic of referees nowadays. The responsibility was on us to be more imaginative and to break them down and we didn't manage to do it. There was nothing wrong with their effort of determination but on the day we were not good enough to break them down.''

Dalglish employed the 3-4-2-1 formation which had won the game at home to Stoke last season but he said it was partly out of necessity. "The personnel we had we didn't have much of a choice," the Scot added. "We left Daniel Agger out as a precaution, Jose Enrique had a bit of stomach virus so we were lucky to get him to play; we didn't have too many options."

Stoke boss Tony Pulis spoke out in defence of referee Webb: "I think it was more out of desperation,'' Pulis said. "Apart from Kuyt's effort - which he should have scored - I'm not saying Thomas Sorensen made save after save. They are a fantastic crowd here and they could see we were digging in and the players needed some help and by cheering the way they cheered every time ball went in there helped. Several referees might have buckled but thankfully Howard is strong and experienced enough to have not.''

Steve Kean revealed the key to Blackburn's 3-1 win over Fulham, achieved with 10 men, was to keep Danny Murphy out of the game: "It was an early red card and it was quite a daunting feeling to go into the rest of the game a man down against a very good Fulham side," Kean said. "But I think there were two ways we could have gone. We could have sat and been a little bit more defensive, but I wanted to try and keep Danny Murphy out of the game.

Morten Gamst Pedersen scored a free-kick for Blackburn © Getty Images

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"I feel Danny's exceptional in the way he can bring people into the game, so we continued to have David Dunn just playing on Danny. We just narrowed up the two wide lads, Junior Hoilett and Morten Gamst Pedersen. I thought they showed fantastic discipline to that shape, because that is not really natural to them and that was a big part of building the platform to go and get the goals."

Kean also rejected suggestions that Chris Samba had refused to play in Saturday's fixture.

For Fulham, it was only their second defeat in their last eight games, pulling them to within six points of the relegation zone, and Jol wasn't happy: "It looked like everything was going for us, but then we conceded a goal just before half-time, which is not what you want. We tried to repair the damage, but then they scored a second early in the second half, which we couldn't do anything about. We pulled one back, but when they got their third it was over, so all credit to them.''

Everton manager David Moyes had praise for Victor Anichebe and Landon Donovan after their 1-1 draw at Aston Villa: "Victor has had a terrible couple of years with injury. He can be a real handful and has got a good temperament. We need to get him on the pitch more often because we know what he is capable of doing," Moyes said. "I thought Landon was the best player on the pitch today. He has come over here from Galaxy, completed the full 90 minutes, and it is a testament to the professional he is.''

Villa boss Alex McLeish asked the fans to be patient with Robbie Keane after the Republic of Ireland international made his debut from the bench: "Robbie has not played for two or three weeks. He has come across the big pond (from America) and only trained for a few days," McLeish explained. "He is not going to be 100% after that short period and the other strikers have done well. But Robbie did well when he came on and I hope he can make an impact.''

Following Norwich's 2-1 win over West Brom, Paul Lambert was keen to praise his hard-working players: "The lads have been fantastic. It was there for everybody to see as we defended really strongly and the lads put their bodies on the line. Collectively as a group they've been brilliant," Lambert said. "I've been involved in many a game when the opposition team have dominated and eventually ending up getting beat, so you make no apologies for it. I thought we were great."

Baggies boss Roy Hodgson refused to blame the referee for failing to send off Daniel Ayala after his two-footed tackle on Jerome Thomas led to a penalty: "I haven't really seen it so I don't have a strong opinion on it," Hodgson said. "I think quite often if it really is a particularly vicious tackle then a yellow card and penalty in the box is often enough, but to be frank I don't have an opinion on the subject because I haven't seen it from lots and lots of different angles."

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