• What They Said

What They Said: A point not enough - Villas-Boas

Andre Villas-Boas defending Fernando Torres after Chelsea's 0-0 draw with Norwich © Getty Images

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Andre Villas-Boas was left frustrated as his Chelsea side were held to a 0-0 draw by Norwich in the day's early kick-off: "In the first half the chances were split between the two teams which made for an entertaining game, the second half was all ours and we finished with 12 shots on goal and we couldn't find the back of the net again," Villas-Boas said. "We tried to find the goal that we wanted but it was a frustrating day. We were dominant but couldn't find a goal. For a super-motivated Norwich (the result) is not bad, for us in the league it's not enough.''

On the still mis-firing Fernando Torres, he added: "He had a good couple of chances, and for you to have chances you have to position yourself to have those good chances and he was there present. With a little bit more luck he will find the back of the net."

Norwich manager Paul Lambert defended Torres, and heaped praise on his goalkeeper John Ruddy. "I think people get on the bandwagon with Torres because he was outstanding today," Lambert said. "He gets a lot of knocks because he is misfiring but he is still a hell of a player. We were up against a team that is really first class. We were really resilient and I thought we deserved to get something out of it. Where we have come from two years ago and we're competing against that. If we can keep doing what we are doing we will be ok."

On Ruddy, he noted: "He has been talked about for England and I think rightly so. I thought he was outstanding."

Martin O'Neill stressed his desire to keep Craig Gardner at Sunderland after the midfielder's wonder strike in their 2-0 defeat of Swansea: "Gardner can score the goals," O'Neill said. "I don't think that anybody wants him to leave the football club. I know that homesickness can have an effect on you, but he has come up trumps again. He scored today and scored a magnificent free-kick against Wigan a couple of weeks ago. The crowd have enjoyed him."

Asked about Nicklas Bendtner, who had to be substituted early in the match, O'Neill added: "The eye is in a pretty poor condition at this moment. He will get a scan tomorrow morning. We are hoping that no serious damage has been done. We won't know that yet. The doctor is hopeful rather than anything else."

Swansea boss Brendan Rodgers maintained he does not need any new players despite their Stadium of Light defeat: "We won't be doing much more in terms of business in this market," Rodgers confirmed. "I am delighted with the group in relation to what we have. As you could see today, the performance level was terrific. I don't need any more players, I don't feel."

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew pinpointed the game-changing moment as Danny Murphy's equaliser in their 5-2 defeat to Fulham. Damien Duff was adjudged to have been brought down inside the box by Davide Santon, much to the disappointment of the Magpies boss: ''I thought the contact was minimal and certainly the only contact that did take place was on the edge of the box,'' Pardew said. ''But it got given and we have to accept that, it was just our reaction to that goal which was the disappointing factor today for us."

Fulham manager Martin Jol knew the exact reason behind why his team scored five second-half goals at Craven Cottage: ''The first half we knew that we had to be a threat in behind [Mike] Williamson and [Fabricio] Coloccini, but we never did that. We couldn't exploit our extra man in midfield and in the second half it was different because we decided to play a more direct style," Jol explained. "That caused them more problems. It was 1-0 and we knew we had come back from that before. The score was not the problem, the style of play was more of a problem. We just didn't put enough energy into it."

QPR boss Mark Hughes was pleased to see his side carry the momentum of the FA Cup win over MK Dons into their 3-1 victory over Wigan: "We kept [the win in midweek] in our thinking and the win on Tuesday helped today," said Hughes. "It is a good habit to have back-to-back wins and we will look ahead to the cup game next week and enjoy it. We will take every game as it comes and I was pleased with what we produced today. The guys were excellent all over the pitch and it is a great reward the three points."

Clint Dempsey scored a fantastic hat-trick for Fulham © Getty Images

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Roberto Martinez sounded like a man who knows his side are headed for trouble following Wigan's latest loss: "Today it was a clear sign we couldn't cope with the two injuries we had to Alcaraz and Crusat," admitted Martinez. "It is quite clear we need to help the players with a couple of fresh players. It is more important than the positions the characters we get and they come in and give us a real help.

"We were disappointing individually. We need to understand in the next 16 games in a typical relegation scrap you need to fight and find that understanding needed to affect a game. I think we will learn a lot today and we need to be better individually for these sort of scraps."

Blackburn are also out of the bottom three after a 1-1 draw at Everton, and Steve Kean felt the result could have been better but for a controversial Tim Cahill strike, which seemed to come after a Marouane Fellaini handball: "We didn't think it should have [stood] but it's easier for us. We can see it from the side," summarised Kean. "The referee is in a difficult position where he can't see. We respect his decision and we just kept going and managed to get something from the game.

"We're happy because we've maintained our record and scored in every Premier League game away from home. When you come to a tough ground like this and play against a well-organised Everton side that's hard for us to break down to get a goal, coming from behind to get a point is an excellent afternoon."

David Moyes had little praise for his team after the Goodison Park encounter: "We didn't play well today," Moyes moaned. "Blackburn played better than us and we were a little bit fortunate to come away with a point. We've not played well enough and we're going to have to try and improve. When you're in your home games you always want to win them. We have to see it as what was a chance for us to pick up all three points and we didn't do so."

West Brom manager Roy Hodgson defended James Morrison after an apparent gesture made by the midfielder in the 2-1 victory at Stoke. ''Did he do that? Blimey. You guys (the media) see everything," Hodgson said. "That gesture could be interpreted in a thousand ways. In the Barclays Premier League there is so much good you can talk about, so many interesting things to say and do, so to start looking for imaginary gestures, for me that saddens me. I hope he didn't do a gesture. If he did, I'm sure he'll apologise for it."

After one defeat in the previous 10 league matches, Stoke manager Tony Pulis questioned the role of Thomas Sorensen for both West Brom goals: ''In the second half we stepped it up a little bit, but the penalty miss (from Jon Walters) is a disappointment,'' said Pulis. ''I really want to see the two goals conceded because I thought they were desperately disappointing. I was as disappointed with the second because anything that is played that side (to Sorensen's left) should be the goalkeeper's. If it beats him over the wall, fine, but if it beats you that side...It just wasn't our day.''

Aston Villa striker Robbie Keane explained that he did not celebrate his match-winning brace against Wolves out of respect for his former club: "It's always nice to score, [but] I had wonderful times at Wolves," Keane said. "They looked after me as a kid and I'll never forget that but at the end of the day you have to be professional and do your job for the team you're with and that's Aston Villa."

Wolves boss Mick McCarthy could not defend Karl Henry after his sending-off, which took place with the scores at 2-2 in the 3-2 defeat: "I think Karl said he kicked out but I thought Karl was fouled beforehand, but that doesn't excuse him kicking out. If he has, it's daft and it's cost us the game. We had an influential player in Emmanuel Frimpong carried off. We thought he put in an outstanding performance. He's an outstanding young player and then Karl Henry getting sent-off and ending up with a wonder strike from Robbie Keane, I guess that was sod's law."

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