Andre Villas-Boas speech inspires Chelsea comeback
Posted Sunday, August 21, 2011 by The Sun
ANDRE VILLAS-BOAS inspired Chelsea's comeback win over West Brom by telling his players: Show me you're good enough to win the title.
The new Blues boss saw his side trail to Shane Long's opener at the break.
He had already hauled off Salomon Kalou after just 34 minutes in an attempt to kick some life into his stars.
But his half-time team talk did the job as Nicolas Anelka and Florent Malouda fired Chelsea to victory.
French midfielder Malouda revealed: "The boss asked if we were willing to show other clubs we are a championship contender. Are we ready to change things?
"It was a simple message. We had to take more risks and play with more character."
Malouda was the player who replaced Kalou and he added: "I think we had to change something in the first half.
"The manager put me in and I tried to make chances with more crosses.
"The manager made a few substitutions. We are glad that it worked.
"It's nothing new and I think it will remain like this until the end of the season.
"There is a lot of competition in this squad. Everyone is under pressure."
After being held to a goalless draw at Stoke in their opener last weekend, Malouda was relieved to claim a first win of the season.
He said: "We are very very happy with the result.
"It was a very difficult home game for us. The most important thing at the start of the season is to get the points."
Villas-Boas played down his rousing speech and insisted it was the players who should take credit.
The ex-Porto boss said: "It is just the players' talent that makes the difference. 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."
West Brom boss Roy Hodgson has now seen his side lose their opening two games to late winners.
They also fell to a 2-1 loss at home to Manchester United last weekend.
Hodgson said: "Certainly there are a lot of positive things from last week's game and this week's game.
"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."
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