Andre Villas-Boas has laughed off any suggestion that Roman Abramovich ordered him to play Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole and Michael Essien in Chelsea's win over Bolton.
Villas-Boas recalled the trio left out of Tuesday night's Champions League 3-1 loss at Napoli and they helped end their team's five-match winless run to climb back into the Barclays Premier League top four.
The Chelsea manager admitted on Thursday that Abramovich, who was at yesterday's 3-0 victory, had sought an explanation for his selection in Naples. But he denied that had influenced his starting line-up.
"It's a coincidence," he said, before bringing laughter to the post-match press conference. "I got the call just this morning to play them, all three of them."
Villas-Boas added, however: "The day I feel disrespected in some way about my professionalism, you will find a different person speaking."
At Stamford Bridge in another dire first half, Chelsea looked every inch a side with problems. But they came good after the break, defender David Luiz giving them the lead before Didier Drogba and the recalled Lampard sealed the win.
Bolton's first-half solidity deserted them and they now lie second bottom of the league table.
Chelsea made the better start, Daniel Sturridge testing Adam Bogdan inside five minutes after a burst from the halfway line, before finding Lampard with a superb through ball, the midfielder just failing to shake off his marker.
Drogba also had a couple of half-chances but Chelsea struggled to fashion opportunities and only looked menacing on the break.
Abramovich, attending his first game since the 3-3 draw against Manchester United three weeks ago, looked on as well-drilled Bolton continued to frustrate his side.
They finally had Bogdan at full stretch in the 29th minute as he palmed away Drogba's left-foot curler, while David Wheater was alert to stop Sturridge finishing Luiz's raking pass.
Bolton were even less of a threat and Darren Pratley – in his first league start for more than two months – was booked for an obvious dive trying to win a penalty before Ryo Miyaichi had their first real effort, firing over on the stroke of half-time.
Chelsea appeared in dire need of inspiration and it arrived less than three minutes after the restart. Luiz won the ball high up the pitch, carried on his run and profited when Wheater failed to clear, curling a lovely finish beyond Bogdan.
The nervousness of a side that has kept only two clean sheets at home in the league all season became apparent when Nigel Reo-Coker shot wide from the edge of the box.
Chelsea, however, twice hit the woodwork inside two minutes, Luiz's header from a corner glancing the post before Drogba curled Juan Mata's pass off the top of the crossbar after another breakaway, ahead of nodding in Lampard's corner in the 61st minute.
Bolton replaced David Ngog with Marvin Sordell and Chris Eagles soon came on for Tuncay Sanli, before Drogba limped off to be replaced by Fernando Torres for the last 14 minutes.
A goal arrived three minutes later, but it was Lampard who got it, stealing in at the back post to cushion Mata's cross past Bogdan for his 12th goal of the season.
Sturridge came off for Salomon Kalou, Torres – dropped by Spain for Wednesday's friendly against Venezuela – curled over from a tight angle and John Obi Mikel replaced Ramires. Kalou almost nodded in number four in stoppage time as Chelsea enjoyed a rare, trouble-free final 10 minutes.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article