His petulant rant against Chris Foy after the QPR game, whereby Foy proceeded to act to the letter of the law and correctly dismissed two Chelsea players was as baffling as it was unprofessional. Rarely are referees brave enough to send a player off in a big game such as that, going against the home support, let alone two. He should be commended not disparaged.
It’s worth noting too, though, the eye Villas-Boas has on the future. His purchases – Lukaku, Romeu, Mata – all point to a manager in it for the long haul. Daniel Sturridge has seen his stock rise exponentially in the last year, with his pace a crucial cog in the manager’s plan.
However, despite the significant investment over the past 18 months, it has been long overdue. Evolution as opposed to revolution is the name of the game. There will be more hiccups along the way. Losing two Derby games on home turf in the space of a week is unfamiliar territory for Chelsea, but this does not mean that we should give in to knee-jerk reactions.
Patience has been in short supply around Stamford Bridge under Abramovich’s reign, the appalling treatment of Carlo Ancelotti still sticking in my craw, but Villas-Boas requires time. Changing the club’s style of play,transfer policy and formation in the space of his first six months was bound to throw up the odd bump in the road and freak result.
No other manager apart from Mourinho has tried to transform the image and identity of everything that the club represents as much in such a short space of time. While both boast a ferocious attention to detail and will to win at all costs, they way they go about it is very different and the circumstances even more so. Villas-Boas will be bankrolled, but not to the same extent, therefore his project requires restraint from within.
Football is a cyclical game with an emphasis on the reactionary. Chelsea are anything but a crisis club, they’ve just had a difficult few weeks. The spotlight currently shone brightly on them will be as ephemeral as a cogent thought in that thing Alan Shearer calls a brain.
There are important questions still to address – the high defensive line, the lack of a genuinely class and recognised winger and whether to pursue with the 4-3-3 formation against tougher opposition – but these are still early days in Villas-Boas’s reign and his track record so far has proven that he‘s pretty decent at finding the answers.
You can follow me on Twitter @JamesMcManus1
Written by James McManus for Footballfancast.com
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