Andre Villas-Boas: my run at Porto tops Chelsea comeback to win Champions League trophy

Chelsea produced one of the most unlikely comebacks in European football history this year when they triumphed in the Champions League after Villas-Boas had been sacked with the team trailing Napoli 3-1, and seemingly in crisis, after the first leg of their last-16 tie.

The turnaround was clearly the greatest managerial achievement of Roberto Di Matteo who, having been promoted from the position of Villas-Boas’s assistant, also guided Chelsea to an FA Cup victory. Villas-Boas’s best achievement in football was winning a treble of trophies at Porto in 2010-11, which included going the entire 30-game Portuguese Liga season without losing.

Asked on Thursday whether it was more difficult to win the Champions League or go a season unbeaten, Villas Boas said: “Remaining unbeaten in the league. Going through it unbeaten is extremely difficult. The achievement that Arsenal did was remarkable and outstanding and probably won’t be repeated in the modern game as it happened in Porto with me. There were games where we lived on the limit and Arsenal did the same. It will be something extremely difficult to go past.”

Ostensibly, Villas-Boas’s answer made perfect sense. There is a winner of the Champions League every year but it is rare for any club in Europe to complete a league season unbeaten.

The context of his comments yesterday, however, was an entire press conference that had been dominated by the theme of Chelsea and his sacking eight months ago. It was difficult, then, to escape the suspicion that his point about an “invincible” season may have been aimed Di Matteo or perhaps even Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea owner.

Saturday will be the first time that Villas-Boas has faced his former club and his Tottenham team will also have the incentive of ending Chelsea’s seven-game unbeaten start to the season. Villas-Boas tried hard yesterday to insist that the challenge would be collective rather than personal and he made reference to how Chelsea, who finished only sixth in the Premier League last season, had snatched a Champions League place from Tottenham following their unlikely triumph in Munich.

“This is certainly not a personal matter,” said Villas Boas. “It is not a quest of an individual, it is a quest of a team, where we want to finish at the end of the season. It is a game which we play at home, we have four wins in a row and we approach it very confidently. It is against the team who took this club out of the Champions League and the team who prevented Tottenham Hotspur from playing in FA Cup final last year. We certainly have ingredients for it to be a spectacular match, hopefully.”

And will Villas-Boas’s inside knowledge of Chelsea ultimately be to Tottenham’s benefit? “Obviously it’s something I have to my advantage but the players know exactly as much as I do from their own experience playing Chelsea. I’m going to see people who mean a lot to me, people who are part of my development as a coach. I certainly feel I have become a better coach because of them. They have helped me a lot on my development of career and it is special to encounter any team you have played or belonged in the past.”

Villas-Boas also acknowledged that his departure in February had been the catalyst for Chelsea’s sudden improvement, not least from ­Fernando Torres, who said this week that he stopped caring whether his club won or lost during a period of last season. “He had more than enough opportunities, I think I was extremely fair,” said Villas-Boas.

“He’s a striker – from a striker you expect goals. Fernando found his routes to goal again after I left. I think this is down not to personal reasons, because the players transcended themselves after I left based on a managerial change, which is something normal.”

After trying to balance the demands at Chelsea last year of Torres and Didier Drogba, Villas-Boas has a rather different dilemma on Saturday in deciding whether to start Emmanuel Adebayor or Jermain Defoe, who played 67 minutes of England’s 1-1 draw against Poland. The absence of John Terry, who begins his four-match suspension, may also inform that decision.

“A player of this dimension always is surely missed,” said Villas-Boas. “He is obviously a player of massive experience, certainly an emotional leader, that can push the others through but the options they have are extremely good.”

Villas-Boas plans to recall Brad Friedel in goal on Saturday – a player he described yesterday as our “number one” – but there was less encouraging news on Scott Parker, who continues his rehabilitation following an Achilles injury. “It’s difficult for him as he still feels pain and is still disturbed in his recovery,” said Villas-Boas, who admitted that it could be Christmas before Parker is actually ready to play.