Chelsea condemn own fans for Ferdinand chants
Published 08:15 02/11/11 By Martin Lipton
Red-faced Chelsea last night publicly condemned their own fans after a night of embarrassment on and off the pitch.
Genk 1-1 Chelsea: Daily Mirror match report
The club was forced to react after travelling supporters bellowed a crude and pernicious insinuation about Anton Ferdinand on the day the Metropolitan Police announced they were formally investigating what John Terry said to the QPR defender.
Chelsea supporters spent much of the first half bellowing out "Anton Ferdinand, you know what you are", as Terry sat on the bench, an unused substitute and helpless as the Blues tossed away two points to Belgian makeweights Genk.
Villas-Boas insisted he had not heard the chants because he was "concentrating on the game" and when pressed added: "I have nothing to say about that."
But within minutes a club spokesman broke the silence as he said: "The chanting was wholly inappropriate. We do not condone it."
Repercussions from UEFA are unlikely but after more sloppy defending saw Jelle Vossen wipe out Ramires' opener after David Luiz missed a penalty Chelsea are locked in a three-way scramble with next opponents Bayer Leverkusen and Valencia to go through.
Chelsea need two draws to be certain of progressing and Villas-Boas said: "It gets more complicated now, a little bit tighter but we have responsibilities that we don't escape. Our job is to qualify first and that's what we'd like to do.
"We created enough opportunities to win the game. It's just not happening for us in terms of efficiency.
"Of course we hit the bar, missed a penalty, had chances in front of goal. If we'd gone in 2-0 up, it would have been easier but, at 1-0, the game is always close. It's not a bad result away from home, but it's a game we expected to win. We have to react."
Villas-Boas insisted he had always intended to rest Terry and that the news of the opening of the police investigation had not been a factor in his decision to leave the skipper out.
He said: "We make decisions according to what we've been doing. After the Everton game there were six changes at the weekend. We did the same for the 5-0 result in the first match. We trust all the players. That was the decision we made.
"When you get a bad run of results you have to get a win straight away to take you out of the run of results. At the moment, we're trying and chasing this win hard but we haven't found it.
"It's back-to-back games without a win, but it was a draw away from home in the Champions League, we still lead the group, and now we go to Leverkusen."
