AVB: Title race is back on
Posted Tuesday, December 13, 2011 by ESPN
Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas believes that his side are back in the title race after a 2-1 win over league leaders Manchester City narrowed the gap to only seven points.
Frank Lampard came off the substitutes' bench to help Chelsea to a 2-1 victory over 10-man Manchester City in the Barclays Premier League on Monday night.
Lampard's late penalty secured the points for Andre Villas-Boas' side, who had earlier fallen behind to Mario Balotelli's second-minute strike before equalising through Raul Meireles.Villas-Boas said: "We did very, very well in the second half to find that detail that would take us through to the three points.
"So, [I'm] very, very happy. It's a very, very gratifying win. It's been a good week for us.
"It changes a little bit our challenge for the Premier League.
"Seven points in this Premier League at the moment, with so many teams competing for the title, it's nothing.
"Man City play Arsenal in the next week, we play Tottenham.
"For our title challenge to continue to be alive, we will have to continue to be competent through the December fixtures, and then we can take a look at it in January to see more or less where we are and see if things are back on track again."
Villas-Boas has developed something of a siege mentality at Stamford Bridge in recent weeks, lashing out at his critics more than once.
He said tonight: "You can check them on the internet, you can Google it and come across it. It was criticism to us, criticism to me, criticism to our players.
"'Our players are not fit, these players cannot compete for this title, they cannot compete with this philosophy'.
"So the fact that we won away to Newcastle, we won against Valencia to be top of the [Champions League] group, and we won against the unbeaten league leaders showed that in fact these guys can take it through.
"We are competent, we believe in our title hopes, we believe in our title challenge."
Match-winner Lampard has been in and out of the Chelsea side this season, giving way to speculation about his future, but the England international insisted he was staying at Stamford Bridge after scoring the goal that has reignited the Blues' title hopes - with leaders City now just seven points away.
"I want to play and I'm at my best when I play, but now I'm in and out. I'm 33 - I understand that - but I want to keep playing regularly because I know I've got a lot to give," Lampard told Sky Sports 1.
"I've got 18 months left and I'll be here that long, and I'll keep trying my hardest."
Lampard stepped up to take the spot-kick, awarded for a handball against City defender Joleon Lescott in the area, and the midfielder admitted there was more relief than usual to see the ball fly into the net after a chequered recent record from 12 yards.
"I went out and missed a penalty a few weeks ago and the next one is always hard to take," he said.
"You've got to be big enough and stand up and take them and they're the moments. I was very relieved when it hit the back of the net."
City's night became all the harder when Gael Clichy was dismissed for a second yellow card after the break, and Lampard felt that moment was key.
"They were down to 10 men so fair play to them, but I had a feeling that it was going to be our night and it turned out that way," he said.
"We needed to win to stay in the race. Ten points is a huge gap and luckily we've closed that."
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