Villas-Boas lauds Chelsea display

Chelsea boss Andreas Villas-Boas labelled his side’s 3-1 win over Norwich at Stamford Bridge on Saturday as their best effort of the season.

After a lacklustre draw against Stoke to begin their season, and a battling 2-1 win against West Brom last weekend, Chelsea looked much improved against Norwich and goals from Jose Bosingwa, Frank Lampard and new signing Juan Mata helped them to a comfortable win.

“It was hard work, particularly in the second half,” Villas-Boas said.

“I think the goal we suffered came against the running of the game because we were a little bit calmer at that stage, but we raised the tempo and the emotions of the game. I think we were able to respond well to suffering the goal.”

“We played better in our overhaul, 90 minute performance because we only had two second halves against Stoke and West Brom when we were good. We were more consistent, so we are happy with that and fortunately enough we managed to turn the result in our favour.”

The game was stopped for several minutes in the second half, as medical teams tended to Chelsea striker Didier Drogba after the Ivorian was knocked out in a sickening collision with Norwich goalkeeper John Ruddy.

Villas-Boas said the early prognosis on Drogba was good.

“He is a little bit better now and he is coming around,” Villas-Boas said.

“He is going to go for all the full scans to assess what the full extent of the head injuries and the concussion is, but he has made steady progress since he has fallen and is showing some signs of recovery.”

Meanwhile, Norwich boss Paul Lambert said he was proud of the way his players responded after falling a goal behind early.

“We gradually grew into the game and I thought we were excellent,” Lambert said.

“We could have been 2-1 up but I can’t ask any more from the lads.”

“The lads came here and they thrived on it, which was great.”

“We’re new to it and we will keep on learning with every game.”