A goalless game at Carrow Road was Chelsea’s first since the openening game of the season at Stoke. It was the first time Paul Lamberts Nowrwich side had kept a clean sheet in the Premier League this season which came as an even bigger surprise at the lack of goals in the match. Again a lack of quality in front of goal was evident as the Blues failed to take their chances.

‘We created enough opportunities to win the game,’ Villas-Boas told the clubs official website.
‘The first half was split between the two teams with good opportunities each. The second-half we created a lot more and managed to be dominant but couldn’t find the back of the net. Had we found it, we would have taken three points because we looked solid and confident.
‘The players really fought hard to get the winning goal but we couldn’t find this winning goal through our lack of efficiency and also due to [John] Ruddy’s amazing performance.’

The Chelsea boss told of how Torres would of have scored in the first half if it wasn’t for the Norwich keeper.
‘Torres tried really hard and his moves once again were sharp and incisive. He is trying really hard to get the goals that we want but he had a major impact in our attacking game and we were happy with his play.’

The Blues’ manager also offered an explanation as to why fifty million signing Fernando Torres was subbed and to explain why new singing Gary Cahill wasn’t included in the squad. ‘I thought Lukaku could threaten more in behind and offer more mobility and Fernando was looking tired. Lukaku came in to the game strong and making good movements so sharpness and freshness were why we made the decision. ‘With Cahill, there are certain principles that take time to assimilate bearing in mind our defensive organisation. He has trained hard for four days and he did extremely well. We decided today for Ivanovic on the bench because he offers the possibility of right-back and centre-back, but I am sure Gary is going to be in contention for QPR.’

Us Blues will be anxious to see how Sunday’s matches turn out and AVB aknowledges that they could prove to be vital results for the Blues’ league campaign. The boss also hinted that a new striker could be in the frame as his side dail to convert their chances.
‘We are in the top three teams for creating chances but the efficiency was not there and this represents where we are in the table. Tomorrow’s games can punish us hard and we will have to wait to see if this game is one point won or two points dropped.’

Related posts:

1. A Good 3 Points For The Blues
2. Two Points Lost For The Blues
3. Blues Eliminated from Carling Cup
4. Chelsea Boss Shows Support For Torres
5. Chelsea in Cahill discussions

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 22nd, 2012 at 3:14 pm and is filed under Chelsea Match Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.