Villas-Boas talking up Mata

Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas is confident new signing Juan Mata will add real quality to the side’s attacking stocks.

Mata, 25, finalised his move from Valencia for 23.5 million pounds on a five-year deal on Wednesday, and Villas-Boas said the Spaniard was a highly regarded addition to his squad.

“We were looking for a player that would give us some creativity in the final third, not that we don’t have it but we always want to add to it when you find talent of this nature,” Villas-Boas said.

“We thought that the price was reasonable for Mata’s qualities and what he’s demonstrated in the Spanish league and the Champions League and we decided to bring him in.”

“It’s one big addition that everybody was looking forward to especially you guys (the media) because speculation was coming from all fronts and there was criticism for the lack of market activity.”

Villas-Boas also confirmed that Chelsea have made a bid to snare midfielder Alvaro Pereira from his former club FC Porto, but was pessimistic over his prospects of getting the Uruguayan.

“I can confirm we have made a bid for him but we are very, very far apart in terms of numbers and it’s very, very difficult that it would happen,” he said. “I’m not very confident.”

After a draw against Stoke and a hard-fought win over West Brom from his first two English Premier League games in charge, Villas-Boas welcomes Norwich to Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

The Chelsea boss was full of praise for his opposite number Paul Lambert for the way his side goes about their football, and is unsure about what to expect on Saturday.

“I cannot go in depth on Norwich last season but they had a fantastic season, an incredible amount of goals scored – last season and the season before,” he said.

“I think Paul Lambert is a person who likes to organise his teams well and likes to play good football, attacking football. I think that’s why they finished as the highest scoring team last year.”

“His principles are well established, but it seems to me that it will be difficult for us to get the starting line-up right because Paul has changed his team dramatically in these last three games.”