AVB On Today’s Game – “I Thought Everybody Was Fantastic”

Chelsea may have lost 3-1 at Old Trafford today, but on another day it could have been a completely different story as Chelsea had more than their fair share of chances to at least draw, if not win the game. Despite the loss boss Andre Villas-Boas was remaining positive and believes his side can challenge for the title.

He said after the game, “ I thought everybody was fantastic with the effort they put in and in being able to mentally react to what happened. We were 3-0 down at half-time, which was unfair, and if it had gone the wrong way it could have been 5-0. It was good the way the team was able to assume responsibility for things not going their way. It takes some courage for the players to assume this.”

The first two United goals were offside, albeit very close decisions, and on another day the linesman would have put his flag up for both. But he didn’t and you have to hope that those type of decisions even themselves out over the course of the season.

When asked about the amazing miss from Fernando Torres AVB said, “You have to be fair. We have seen two of the world’s best strikers miss crazy opportunities, Fernando with his miss and Wayne Rooney with his penalty. This is nothing dramatic but sometimes it becomes something.”

He went on to say, “We tried everything to win this game but it was impossible. It just didn’t fall our way, not only in terms of opportunities but also refereeing decisions. The most important thing is that we believe in the way we are playing and it is for the benefit of everyone. It is the fans we have to please with the way we play. The five contenders are up there and anything can happen. The most regular is Manchester United at the moment, but we showed we are up to the level of the champions. We will be up there competing with them for the title and I’m glad Sir Alex corroborates this opinion.”

Today was probably our best performance of the season, yet we lost the game. We had 20 shots at goal, 11 were on target, and created 10 corners to the four from United. Lets hope we learn from our mistakes, but if we continue to play with the aggression we showed when we went forward today it could end up being a great season at the Bridge.