Villas-Boas on borrowed time as his Charge of the Light Brigade backfires

By Oliver Holt in Mirror Football Blog

Published 22:47 21/02/12

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Andre Villas-Boas turned a football match into a public act of bloody-minded defiance here last night.

Burdened by the most intense pressure, ridiculed by some, doubted by most, the Chelsea boss held his ground in the power-struggle with his senior players.

He stood up to the might of the Chelsea dressing room, stared down his critics and, on the biggest night of his professional life, refused to compromise.

A 3-1 defeat characterized by some typically ragged defending against a fine Napoli side hardly counts as vindication for his decisions.

Napoli 3-1 Chelsea:Daily Mirror match report by Martin Lipton

Nor did the performance convey any real sense of progress or banish the feeling that Villas-Boas stands on the edge of a precipice.

What it did do, though, was underline the fact that the Chelsea manager will not be intimidated.

In the short-term, perhaps, that may be rather a pointless victory. In the long term, it might be more significant. But there very rarely is a long-term for Chelsea managers.

Already deprived of his best defender, captain John Terry, through injury, he did what no Chelsea manager has ever done before and left out Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole.

When the pair angrily questioned his decision at the team hotel, Villas-Boas dismissed their objections.

"They felt they could have helped the team," the Chelsea boss said after the match, "but these are decisions they have to accept and move on."

AVB admits row with Lampard and Cole over Napoli team selection  

Villas-Boas picked Didier Drogba, sure. He even made him skipper. But then the way Fernando Torres is playing, he really had very little choice.

To shun the experience of Lampard last night, still a big player for big occasions, was a risky call but Villas-Boas did not shirk it.

Whatever he had said the night before about Roman Abramovich being committed to him for the long-term, Villas-Boas must have known a crushing defeat at the Stadio San Paolo would probably get him the sack.

But he went for it anyway. This was his team, the 11 names he wrote on a piece of paper shouted out, and he was going to live or die by it.

Well, he survived. Just. But he is still bleeding heavily. And there was no sense of wounds healing in this tumultuous 3-1 defeat.

At times, in fact, it felt as though Villas-Boas was masterminding the football equivalent of the Charge of the Light Brigade.

There were times when it felt as if everything was falling apart and that Chelsea would be slaughtered. That there could be no fall-back position. That all would be lost.

But somehow they clung on. Sometimes, it was desperate. It was Cole, on as an early substitute for the injured Bosingwa, who hacked the ball off the line in the 80th minute when Napoli seemed certain to score.

That would have made it 4-1 to the Italians and it would have damned Villas-Boas's team selection unequivocally.

As it is, Napoli will be favourites to go through when the teams meet for the second leg at Stamford Bridge in three weeks.

Chelsea's defending, particularly Gary Cahill's, is so poor and Napoli's counter-attacking so vibrant that it is almost impossible to imagine the Italians will not score in London.

But there is still hope. Just. There is still a glimmer of light for Villas-Boas and that is a small victory on a night like last night.

What a night it was, wild and raw. The Stadio San Paolo, dilapidated and magnificent, is the kind of place that seeks out uncertainty and punishes it mercilessly.

It was here, in the teeth of a gale and in the face of a downpour that Villas-Boas chose to make his stand. It was hard not to admire his nerve.

It had already been quite a day before Chelsea even left their seafront hotel to head for the stadium.

By mid-morning, Villas-Boas knew that not only would Terry not play but that he needed a knee operation that would keep him out for six to eight weeks.

Then, there was the altercation with Lampard and Cole. Inside the hotel, players seethed. Outside, a substantial crowd of Napoli fans gathered, aiming obscene gestures at the building whenever they thought they caught sight of a Chelsea player.

It was an ugly atmosphere, febrile and edgy. The beautiful weather that had bathed the Bay of Naples in the morning gave way to teeming rain.

After nearly half an hour, it seemed as if Villas-Boas was to be vindicated when Juan Mata pounced on a defensive mistake and caressed a volley past Morgan de Sanctis.

But Ezequiel Lavezzi equalised six minutes before half time and Cavani put Napoli ahead on the stroke of the interval.

Cavani's goal, once more, exposed the shortcomings of Chelsea's ball-watching defence as a cross from the right was allowed to bounce in the area before the Uruguayan ran on to it.

In those frenetic moments, Chelsea seemed on the brink of collapse and they were grateful when Lavezzi wasted a golden opportunity ten minutes into the second half.

But defensive shortcomings cost them dearly again midway through the half when the ineffectuality of David Luiz caused chaos in the Chelsea area and Lavezzi slammed the ball home.

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