Villas-Boas: We are being persecuted

Andre Villas-Boas took full advantage of his side's safe passage into the knockout stages of the Champions' League to launch into a tirade into the media. "We gave all our critics a slap in the face," said the Chelsea boss who he accused was waging a war of "persecution" on his side. "This win showed our human values, strength of character and we showed our resilience to take all the criticism. "The players got no respect. " The win was against all the odds, no one would have bet on that result." One suspects that Villas-Boas had conveniently forgotten that in his short five-month reign in charge of the Blues he is responsible for the worst start to a season in recent history. He continued in this vein but also conceded the the manner of the victory was at odds to his attacking philosophy. "We made changes in the way we played," he conceded. "We kept our block low, or medium low. we gave Valencia possession, but no one gave us credit when we had possession in Valencia," he cried. "It was not the best win in what we are trying to do but we are driven by results. "The performance was at odds with our philosophy - it was a different strategy but we showed the same human values. "I won't pick a fight with you guys (the media) but the criticism is over the top of us - it's out of this world, there is persecution towards us." Villas-Boas then compared the criticism of his team with the apparent lack of criticism for Manchester City - again forgetting that they are actually sailing away with the league at spent, scoring goals for fun. "We played a great game when we lost, but people seem to concentrate only on our results, no one hailed our style when we played in Valencia," he bleated. Villas-Boas acknowledged that their early goal was key to the victory. "The early goal brought the team a boost of confidence, the second gave them even more confidence. "Collectively, we were fantastic. Didier Drogba goat goals which is a result of his good form, "It's a difficult position to play and Drogba is getting more confident with the goals he is scoring. Drogba is on a good run and as long as he performs, then fantastic. it we have other good forwards too." Villas-Boas explained why he left out Chelsea legend Frank Lampard from the side which won't be music to the midfielder's ears. "Frank is fantastic," he started off. "He has immense talent. but I have to play 11 men. I played the three, Meireles, Mata and Romeu in midfield because they could give me the better technical ability to bring the ball out of defence. But Frank will be back in contention for a starting place against Manchester City." Ends