Villas-Boas: Frank is amazing...

Andre Villas-Boas was delighted with his side's 1-0 win over Sunderland at Stamford Bridge this afternoon thanks to Frank Lampard's 13th minute goal. "It was a very, very good win and put to an end an incredible effort from Sunderland," said the Portuguese. Speaking about his goal-scoring midfielder, Villas-Boas said: "Frank has amazing timing the box. It is no co-incidence that he is one of the top midfielders in the world. "Frank will continue to threaten all Chelsea records. He has broken many and is now 10 goals away from another Chelsea legend." I hope Villas-Boas's tactical nous is better than his maths as Lampard is actually 12 goals away from Chelsea icon Kerry Dixon's 193 goals for the Blues. He added: "The win puts us closer to Spurs and further away from Liverpool. "We left the game on the edge but we showed great solidarity to win. "We started the game in a 4:3:3 formation, with the same players who won at Wolves. We then changed it in the second half bringing on holding midfielders." Chelsea certainly created many chances but once again Fernando Torres failed to score. Villas-Boas said: "Torres is finding inspiration and form, and has friends and the fans behind him. "He is picking up confidence and is getting closer to scoring all the time. So long as Torres is helping the team, that's okay." Michael Essien returned to first team action since he injured his anterior cruciate ligament in a knee during pre-season. Villas-Boas was full of praise for the Ghana. Midfielder. "It's amazing to see Essien. I have to give due praise to the medical staff here. Michael is an inspiration who gives 100 per cent all the time. it's outstanding that he is back so quickly." Villas-Boas would have preferred to have put Sunderland to the sword earlier. "Sunderland has won a lot of games late on, in the last minutes," he said. "So they have the inspiration to get forward right to the end. but we also threatened on the counter-attack. It could have ended 2-0 or 1-1."