AVB lauds Lamps after winner

15 January 2012 07:46

Andre Villas-Boas declared Frank Lampard had every chance of breaking Chelsea's all-time goalscoring record after the midfielder scored one of the luckiest winners of his career to see off Sunderland 1-0.

Lampard was in the right place at the right time for the ball to bounce off him into the net after Fernando Torres' superb scissors kick careered off the crossbar.

He is now just 12 and 21 goals, respectively, shy of fellow Blues legends Kerry Dixon and Bobby Tambling in the all-time list, and manager Villas-Boas said: "He will continue to threaten all remaining Chelsea records."

Suggesting Lampard's goal owed more to instinct than luck, he added: "Frank is always a player who has this amazing timing of arrival in the box. It's not coincidence that he's one of the best goalscoring midfielders in the world and his timing is magnificent."

The same cannot be said about team-mate Torres for most of the striker's Chelsea career, but on Saturday he produced one of the best performances since last year's £50million move from Liverpool.

Villas-Boas, who is playing Torres during Didier Drogba's absence at the African Nations Cup, said: "He's getting his good run now of games, finding inspiration, finding motivation, finding form, has all the team behind him and has the fans behind him as you saw today.

Villas-Boas also confirmed Gary Cahill, who attended the game, was set to complete his move from Bolton on Sunday.

Frustrated Sunderland boss Martin O'Neill was adamant his side's penalty claim, for a foul on Nicklas Bendtner, was legitimate.

"I had a quick flash before I came out at ours and ours is obviously a definite penalty," he said. "I've been told, certainly, that the first one (on Torres) at our end is not a penalty."

But O'Neill refused to be too downcast about what was a rare setback since his arrival at Sunderland, adding: "When you consider that Chelsea were overwhelmed at the final whistle, I suppose we take some sort of consolation."

Source: PA