Villas-Boas complains to refs chief

20 September 2011 15:05

Andre Villas-Boas revealed he had complained to referees' chief Mike Riley about the performance of the officials in Chelsea's Barclays Premier League defeat at Manchester United on Sunday.

Villas-Boas was still smarting on Tuesday afternoon by the manner of what was his first loss in charge of the Blues and his first defeat in a league game for 17 months. Chelsea fell 2-0 behind at Old Trafford to goals which replays showed should not have stood as both scorers had been offside, with United eventually running out 3-1 winners.

Villas-Boas said on Tuesday: "Very, very unhappy with a poor performance from the referees, which in the end had a decisive role in the result, and I don't take it very, very lightly. You expect the linesman to do his job. I already went further ahead with the situation by speaking to the correct people."

He added: "We all feel very, very down when the referee had such an impact on the result."

Chelsea were also let down by their own wastefulness in front of goal, with Fernando Torres producing one of the worst misses in Premier League history.

Villas-Boas refused to comment on his £50million striker's state of mind, saying: "It's not a question about an individual player.

"I'm very, very happy with how the team responded. Everybody is strong and with the correct frame of mind."

However, the Chelsea boss all but confirmed Torres would have to wait for the chance to redeem himself, revealing he planned to flood his team with youngsters for Wednesday night's Carling Cup third-round tie with Fulham.

"It gives us a very good idea of where we stand regarding the young players that we are trying to bring through," said Villas-Boas, who announced Josh McEachran, Romelu Lukaku, Oriol Romeu and Ryan Bertrand would all start on Wednesday, with Didier Drogba leading the line after being sidelined for more than three weeks with a sickening head injury.

Source: PA