Chelsea 3-5 Arsenal: Daily Mirror match report

Andre Villas-Boas has promised carry on attacking – even though the goals are pouring in at the other end.

Chelsea have shipped 15 goals in 10 games in the Premier League and not kept a clean sheet since the opening day of the season.

Arsenal put five past them, they conceded three at Manchester United with a defence looking uncharacteristically ­vulnerable.

But despite all that, Villas-Boas insists that he will stick to his attacking principles even though it is hard to believe that any team can win trophies while being so open at the back.

Villas-Boas said: “Attacking football is part of the British culture, not my culture. It should be the pride of English football and I think it is. So we shouldn’t turn things around.

“Everyone is praising a strong, attacking team like Manchester City and we are exactly the same.

“We just have to make the most of our opportunities and try to score them. We had good opportunities to take the result to another level in the first-half but we couldn’t find the back of the net.”

Villas-Boas has made a decent start as Chelsea manager and they will no doubt be in the top four places. But the difference between them and City is that they are strong at the back as well as superb going forward.

Chelsea appear to have the balance wrong at the moment. John Terry had a game of ups and downs to make his week from hell even worse.

Ashley Cole had a good first half, attacked well but was exposed defensively. Jose Bosingwa is simply unable to defend. And Petr Cech was expected to deal with the onslaught. He couldn’t.

It has left Villas-Boas facing major decisions at Chelsea as to how he resolves the right back issue. Should he rest Terry amid the furore. And if Alex is out of favour, then surely a new centre half is needed.

Villas-Boas already knows that Champions League qualification alone is not enough for survival at Chelsea. And you can forget the title or Champions League defending like this. Just imagine how many Barcelona would score.

It leaves Villas-Boas facing major pressure but insisted he will not worry about his own future. “That means you are not cold-blooded in your analysis,” said Villas-Boas.

“This is the Premier League and winning it is difficult for any manager. That’s why the prestige is immense. At the moment the challenge is not going our way too much of the time in terms of the points distance to the leader.

“But we were in exactly the opposite position last year and things turned around. So there is no reason for us not to believe in that.

“Before this game we were one of the three best defences in the Premiership. So this is a game of this nature. Nobody would bet on the results that have been happening in the Premier League this season.

“The results that are happening reflect how chaotic the game is and how beautiful it is at the same time.

“This is the route that we are taking and we want to do the things properly. The players have talent and they enjoy it. So we will try to get things right.”

Arsenal will know that their defence is just as bad as Chelsea’s. Johan Djourou and Andre Santos were exposed time and again. Djourou can be excused as he is not a full back. Amazingly, Santos is.

Not surprisingly, Chelsea’s first goal came down that side. John Terry had a bizarre afternoon of ups and downs and was treated to endless chants of abuse amid the allegations of racism against Anton Ferdinand.

But Terry’s brilliant cross field pass found Juan Mata, he beat Santos and his cross somehow evaded Per Mertesacker and Frank Lampard headed home.

Typically van Persie led the fight back as he scored in the 36th minute after the brilliant Ramsey and Gervinho combined.

Terry’s afternoon briefly reached a high when he put Chelsea ahead at the break after more poor Arsenal defending.

Santos then did what he did best and attacked to equalise in the 49th minute with a low shot past Petr Cech. Theo Walcott then put Arsenal ahead with a great solo effort in the 56th minute.

Arsenal keeper Wojciech Szczesny was lucky only to get a yellow card for hauling down Ashley Cole on the edge of the box. But Arsenal’s luck appeared to have run out when Mata’s deflected shot levelled the scores.

But there was still time for more drama. Florent Malouda’s poor pass led to Terry slipping and that allowed van Persie to go clean through to round Cech.

If that was a cool and deadly finish then his third and Arsenal’s fifth was all about power as van Persie’s shot flew past Cech.

It was a match to forget for both sets of defenders. It was all about the forwards. And as Villa-Boas may discover, attacking football is be great on the eye, but club owners like the look of silverware even more.