Saturday, 20th October, 2012
Andre Villas-Boas has bemoaned his Tottenham side handing Chelsea enough opportunities to put them to the sword at White Hart Lane earlier today.
Spurs fell behind in the first half when Gary Cahill volleyed Chelsea into the lead, which they held until the break.
A Villas-Boas team talk saw Spurs make inroads almost as soon as the game restarted though, when first William Gallas (47th minute) and then Jermain Defoe (54th minute) turned the match on its head, handing the home side a 2-1 lead.
But then Chelsea’s special attacking talents of Juan Mata, Eden Hazard and Oscar began to cause havoc and it was Mata who hit a quickfire double (66th and 69th minutes) to put the Blues back into the lead 3-2.
The game was then made completely safe by striker Daniel Sturridge in the final minute, when he scored to make it 4-2.
Villas-Boas had failed to gain revenge on the side which sacked him earlier this year, while Spurs good run had also come to an abrupt halt.
relatedNewsStory And for the Portuguese, a failure to stop Mata, Hazard and Oscar, with too many chances given to the brilliant attacking talents, was to blame for the defeat, even if he was determined not to feel too down.
"Chelsea do not need a lot of opportunities to score and, certainly, we had as many chances to score as they did", Villas-Boas told Spurs’ official site.
"But when it went to 2-1 they managed to find the gaps between us with Mata, Hazard and Oscar and managed to get back to 2-2.
"At 3-2, we had chances to level the score and 4-2 is irrelevant because we were searching for 3-3.
"Everyone is disappointed because we wanted to go nearer to the top and this was a good chance to bring them down, but we have 30 more games ahead of us and we have to be focused and ready for them."
Villas-Boas explained that, the team must now show they can recover.
"We have to bounce back from adversity and improve our results again."
