Fighting spirit pleases Villas-Boas

Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas praised the ability of his players after coming from a goal down to beat West Bromwich Albion 2-1.

Hosts Chelsea trailed to a Shane Long goal early in Saturday’s match at Stamford Bridge, prompting Villas-Boas to introduce Florent Malouda for Salomon Kalou after just 30 minutes.

The French substitute netted the winner with eight minutes remaining after compatriot Nicolas Anelka had equalised.

Speaking after his first victory in the English Premier League, Villas-Boas was pleased with the way his players overcame their nervous start.

“It is just the players’ talent that makes the difference,” Villas-Boas said. “Their mental attitude for the second half was good.”

“There was a sense of realising the space and better options without being anxious like they were in the first half. It goes down to them.”

“It was a difficult game. The first goal was very early and the crowd became anxious and that passed onto the pitch.”

“We weren’t able to play to our level. We had to remove the anxiety and be mentally tranquil.”

“The players were able to free themselves from that and work at their best.”

For West Brom, it was their second successive 2-1 defeat against a title contender after they also lost to Manchester United last Sunday.

Nevertheless, manager Roy Hodgson was encouraged by his team’s performance.

“Certainly there are a lot of positive things from last week’s game and this week’s game,” Hodgson said.

“But it was disappointing to lose. For 60 minutes we did quite well. On another day, like last week, we could have come away with a result.”

“We got in behind them on plenty of occasions and could have scored more than the one goal we got.”