Villas-Boas: Football first, results second

Ahead of a game against a side whose style he admires, Andre Villas-Boas maintains that the entertaining way is not always the easy way, but it's a route he is sticking to and he makes no apologies for that.

The Old Trafford defeat and the manner in which it came about has been one of football's big discussions this week, as it had every right to be when last season's top two met for the first time this campaign and played such an open, incident-packed game.

The Blues came away empty-handed but as he goes in search of three points against Swansea today, the Chelsea manager has few regrets about the way his side performed.

'I would do the same for all the season,' Villas-Boas says about how he asked the players to approach the game.

'The path that some managers take is more difficult but more gratifying, not that you can be so closed-minded not to understand that in a club like Chelsea, the most important thing is to win trophies. We are putting the attacking path, the good football path ahead of results, but we are trying to mix it together.

'That path is more difficult and a couple of the games this season we weren't playing with the fluency with which we want to play. We are getting better now but another example is Swansea because you can see it is a philosophy and it is a path Brendan Rodgers has chosen to take, and it's more difficult.

'It makes it even harder for him but with the results he's been getting, I think he can be pretty happy.'

The Chelsea manager doesn't take kindly to people claiming the philosophy followed, especially at Old Trafford, is a naïve one.

'They judge it last weekend based on the result. Sometimes they criticise people who get results and get results with a lack of flair. They say it's against the culture of good football, it's against the fans etc. When it goes the other way around, it looks like people don't know how to position themselves. I find it completely surprising.

'We weren't naïve, we had the initiative of the game and we created a lot of chances. It was a problem with efficiency.

'The three goals happened with two offside and a ricochet, so where is the naivety in that?

'The fact that the three goals were scored, that doesn't mean defensively we were in chaos. It's a more difficult path but it can mean trophies as well. You can take many different ways in football and be a success, I would never criticise someone who takes the opposite approach. I find it as good as any other approach. It's just that you must believe in what you do and the players in what they do.'

My friend is in love with him. She thinks he is insanely good-looking

Sepi wrote:My friend is in love with him. She thinks he is insanely good-looking

Woah cool

I like this guy.

I've never liked a Chelsea manager but...he's making it hard for me to not like him. I might just have to like him. Dangit.

Boss!

when it comes to title, mou is opposite.

this guy likes looks instead of results if he has to choose in a hard situation?

The Madrid One wrote:

when it comes to title, mou is opposite.

this guy likes looks instead of results if he has to choose in a hard situation?

What hard situation?

I completely support him. I don't want to see a chelsea team grinding results like how we were at the end of last season, I want to see a chelsea team that looks a lot like the team in ancelotti's first season (entertaining and smashing teams 7-0).

On the topic of the Chelsea-ManU game, I think chelsea played much more attractive football, of course we didn't get the results which is what matters, but even AVB acknowledges that and I believe our finishing is getting better and better.