• Chelsea manager hits out at media critics
• Villas-Boas brands Neville’s remarks as ‘comic criticism’

André Villas-Boas has launched a scathing attack on Gary Neville, over the pundit’s “ridiculous” criticisms of his Chelsea players. The Portuguese manager also suggested that other former professionals working in the media spoke from a “biased position in their opinion-making”.

Villas-Boas claimed in midweek that Chelsea had been persecuted in the media in recent months, and said that his team’s qualification for the knockout phase of the Champions League would be a “slap in the face” for their critics. He maintained his theme as he prepared for a home match against the Premier League leaders, Manchester City, on Monday.

In an emotional seven-minute critique that was reminiscent of José Mourinho in his Chelsea pomp, Villas-Boas dismissed remarks made by players who have become pundits.

Recent Chelsea performances have been criticised by the likes of Alan Hansen – who said their defending was “catastrophic” – Mark Lawrenson and Graeme Souness, all former Liverpool players. However, Villas-Boas seems to have been angered most by Neville. The former Manchester United and England defender, who now works as an expert analyst for Sky, said David Luiz’s performance against Liverpool was that of a man “being controlled by a 10-year-old on a PlayStation” and suggested in the buildup to the Champions League game against Valencia on Tuesday that he would not have relished being a Chelsea player ahead of that fixture.

“I’m nobody to criticise [Neville's] opinion, but when he takes this ridiculous route I have to defend [my player],” said Villas-Boas. “You cannot be a top English defender like [Neville] was, and a top Manchester United defender like he’s been [and say this] and I’d say this to his face with most pleasure.

“You cannot approach a top Brazil central defender, a player of tremendous aspirations and talent, saying he’s commanded by a kid with a PlayStation. That’s ridiculous. He plays for the team with most titles, so be careful with what you’re saying.

“Nor can you speculate about Chelsea’s dressing room. What does he know about the Chelsea dressing room? … Have you been here? Do you know where Cobham is? You don’t even know how to get here. You cannot speculate or invent based on assumptions or speculation. Some people can have more or less an idea. But not him. He cannot know. I’m normally indifferent, not watching on the telly to see what these people say. But I was watching the television at that moment, and I was gobsmacked.

“When it is comic criticism, and the lack of in-depth criticism from top ex-professional players, I think I have to defend myself and my players. I have to be aggressive. That’s fair. We know most of these people we are speaking about have a direct past related to single clubs, which are their favourite clubs, which in the end brings a likely biased position in their opinion-making.”

The Chelsea manager shrugged off the suggestion that he may be perceived as oversensitive – “You can say what you want,” he said – but was scathing of the Newcastle manager Alan Pardew’s argument that the referee Mike Dean’s unwillingness to dismiss David Luiz for a professional foul on Demba Ba early in last Saturday’s victory at St James’ Park contributed to the injuries subsequently sustained by Danny Guthrie and Steven Taylor. The yellow card shown to David Luiz sees him suspended on Monday.

“Alan Pardew made a big scandal out of this but the guy [Ba] is offside,” Villas-Boas said. “Maybe the linesman should have done his work, and maybe Pardew was lucky. He even got a free-kick which Ryan Taylor could have scored from, Luiz got a yellow card and I got a player suspended. So maybe, now, I should get the card rescinded. And this is the same manager, who got a [dubious] penalty at Old Trafford to get a 1-1, making a big scandal out of this. And then it was ‘it got our players injured, because David Luiz wasn’t sent off’. Come on.”

Chelsea approach the visit of City hoping to close to within seven points of the leaders. Villas-Boas suggested his team’s start to the season – they have taken 28 points from 14 games – had been made to look inadequate by the leaders’ excellence. In support of his argument, he produced a laminated chart that compared his side’s points tally with those achieved in the past few years.

“Chelsea, at the moment, have the same points as the champions last year and the same points as the champions three years ago,” he said. “And they have two points less than the champions four years ago.”

André Villas-BoasChelseaGary NevilleDominic Fifieldguardian.co.uk

Speed of thought the new mantra for Chelsea’s manager as he looks to inject additional pace into team

Perhaps it is not so surprising that Roman Abramovich demands that his managers find that rare blend of winning and aesthetic football. Considering the match that supposedly turned him on to the game was a 4-3 extravaganza involving Manchester United and Real Madrid in April 2003, with a series of galácticos on display (Ronaldo, Luís Figo and Zinedine Zidane bewitched for the visitors while David Beckham, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Roy Keane delivered for the hosts), is it any wonder the Chelsea owner has lofty expectations? His benchmark was one of the glitziest matches in Champions League memory. There was a Harlem Globetrotters feel to an affair that dripped with so much romance it was almost sickly sweet.

For all of Chelsea’s many successes (and near misses) since Abramovich began his Stamford Bridge project, the feeling persists that he is yet to be satisfied that any of his managers has created the perfect blend of easy on the eye and peasy with the medals.

André Villas-Boas has spoken liberally – but vaguely – of the myriad things he is trying to change to bring about a new Chelsea style. In their Champions League victory over Bayer Leverkusen there was progress. He defines it as “speed of possession”. Coming after Fernando Torres’s public critique of the team’s velocity last week, it is an interesting development. Villas-Boas and his staff have been working hard to add speed of possession, of movement, of thinking, into Chelsea’s gameplan. So why is it important to play quicker? “Because of the nature of British football basically, because it is full of high speed and high emotion,” he says. “Maybe that is what we’re trying to transform.”

But what is striking is the way it is coming about. Chelsea are looking towards a Latin influence to make the difference. The bulk of recruits to arrive in the past year have come from southern Europe and the Americas – the technique of Juan Mata, Oriol Romeu and (if they can ignite it to the full) Torres from Spain, the dashing David Luiz and Ramires from Brazil, the subtlety of Raul Meireles from Portugal, the youthful prospect Ulises Dávila from Mexico.

Compare that to the intake from five summers ago: Michael Ballack, Andriy Shevchenko, Ashley Cole, Wayne Bridge, Khalid Boulahrouz, Mikel John Obi and Salomon Kalou. The blueprint was generally for a muscular six-footer whose football education took place in northern Europe.

Glance around the English participants in the Champions League, and the example of the success stories from Barcelona and the Spanish national team seems to be setting an increasingly potent trend. According to Villas-Boas, the example is not so much about speed of touch but of thought. “Barcelona have redefined the notion of time and space in football,” he says. “What they have done is increase the speed of circulation of the ball by slowing the game down in their minds. In British football the game is too fast in your mind. Decision making collides with the speed and the nature of the British game.”

Can he adjust that at Chelsea? “I can propose it,” he says, mindful of the fact he is searching for a balance between new ideals with the culture of the game in the Premier League. Deep down, he does not think any other club can mimic Barcelona. “The mixture they have together is something out of this world and I don’t think it’s possible at the moment for any other club. It’s Iniesta, Xavi, Messi, Piqué. So many brought up in that school they are able to show their full potential for the first team.”

But looking for that balance between southern and northern football styles is clearly worth pursuing. It may be a trick of the eye – especially when you see Stoke City reinforced by Peter Crouch – but the Premier League seems to have become a magnet for smaller players in a way it has never been before. Where athletic prowess and physical bulk was a basic prerequisite not so long ago, now increasing numbers of dainty, nimble, ball players are running amok.

Manchester City are the most arresting example, with their agile front players weaving free-flow patterns that leave their fans giddy in more ways than one. The way that David Silva, Sergio Agüero, Samir Nasri and Carlos Tevez buzz around the final third makes them look like they would belong as comfortably in La Liga as they do in the Premier