Chelsea's less-than-convincing start to the season continued on Saturday as they survived another Stamford Bridge scare to beat 10-man Norwich 3-1. The Blues have looked anything but championship challengers in their opening three games of the campaign. But Villas-Boas has insisted they are improving and that they will get even better once they begin playing twice a week, instead of once. "When the midweek games start coming in, it will help with the fluency of our game, because you play the games more often and you get more of a relationship between players," said Villas-Boas, whose side face Sunderland, Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester United in the space of eight days after the international break. "The quality of the game will improve and that's what we want straight away, to find that fluency. "You get more match situations instead of training situations. "In the end, it's the game that matters." Chelsea left it late again on Saturday to snatch all three points and maintain their unbeaten start under Villas-Boas. They looked like finally showing championship form when Jose Bosingwa's first goal in almost three years put them ahead after less than six minutes. But Norwich deservedly levelled when Grant Holt pounced on a horrible error from Hilario and the visitors even went close to taking a shock lead before Villas-Boas' substitutes came to the rescue for the second week in succession. One of them, Nicolas Anelka, played in Ramires for the penalty which turned the game - Frank Lampard scoring after John Ruddy was sent off. And another, Juan Mata, made sure on his debut by striking in the 11th minute of injury time. Mata's performance highlighted the lack of creativity in Chelsea's midfield prior to his introduction but Villas-Boas insisted the Spaniard did not change the game unaided. "Mata found some good spaces," he said. "Also, the team helped him find these spaces. "Bringing on (Romelu) Lukaku and Nico helped the fluency of our team." Anelka's introduction was forced on Villas-Boas by a sickening head injury to Didier Drogba, who was rushed to hospital after being knocked out in an aerial challenge with Ruddy. The striker was given the all-clear following scans at St Mary's Hospital, which will be a huge relief for Villas-Boas, who started Drogba alongside Fernando Torres for the first time. The pair showed signs of forming an understanding, something they had failed to do under Carlo Ancelotti last season. But their partnership is far from a natural one and also demonstrated that Villas-Boas is still searching for his best XI and formation. He has so far tried 4-3-3 and various variations of 4-4-2 in his opening three games, although the 33-year-old preferred to see his tinkering as a positive. "It's good that we have this flexibility," he said. "Teams are criticised when they don't offer this flexibility. "We have that and we are able to perform with all of these structures." Villas-Boas also shrugged off the defensive vulnerability Chelsea have shown at Stamford Bridge against West Brom and Norwich. "We showed some excellent pre-season signs with our defensive aspect," he said. "We are solid defensively, to be fair." The Chelsea of old would never have been as badly troubled by a promoted side as they were on Saturday but Villas-Boas insisted this said more about Norwich than it did his side. "Norwich didn't play particularly well but created problems," he said. "For a team that had two back-to-back promotions, it shows the quality of work that Paul Lambert is doing. "They are a team that can create problems for other teams." That view was echoed by Canaries boss Lambert, who took great confidence from Saturday's performance. Lambert, whose side have taken two points from their opening three Premier League matches, said: "The first three games have indicated to me that we're up here on merit. "We haven't been torn apart by anybody. "We'll keep on learning from every game. "I'm delighted with the way the lads are playing."
