Chelsea boss Villas-Boas said Arsene Wenger's men were capable of coming back from Wednesday night's last-16 first leg defeat, even though no club had ever recovered from a 4-0 deficit in European competition.
Wenger conceded his side were all but knocked out but Villas-Boas, who pointed out Milan threw away a 4-1 lead in their 2004 quarter-final against Deportivo La Coruna, said: "Impossibles in football happen when you least expect them and I think the emotions that are played in the English game can have an impact on Arsenal and on the running of that game.
"If they score early in the game, they could go all the way." Villas-Boas recalled he almost endured such a turnaround during Porto's Europa League semi-final second leg against Villarreal last season, having won the first leg 5-1.
"Within 15 minutes, we were already losing 1-0 and could have been losing two or three," he said. "In the end we got lucky, we lost 3-2. But that's how quickly the game can change." Wenger tore into his players for their performance on Wednesday night.
Villas-Boas, who branded Chelsea's 2-0 Barclays Premier League defeat at Everton on Saturday their worst display of the season, said: "Regarding Arsenal, I'm nobody to make an assessment.
"I would just maybe perpetuate Arsene Wenger's words because it's maybe more or less what I feel about our last game, which is the acknowledgement that it was their worst game of the season." He added of Milan: "They've put on a massive, massive display.
"But I'm not sure if what happened to Arsenal yesterday reflects exactly what Arsenal is, and I'm sure that they will show that strength in a different way."
No comments:
Post a Comment