Grant: We will win in style

Chelsea boss Avram Grant promised to press on with his quest to play entertaining football after seeing his side cruise to victory at Middlesbrough.

Grant insisted that winning in style would be his main aim during his time at Stamford Bridge.

Asked if he has an obligation to entertain, he said: “Yes. I have an obligation for this. This is the right way in modern football, there is no other way.

“Of course, you need to win games, but the way to the winning is also important, not like it was before.”

However, questioned further on how he intends to build upon Mourinho’s legacy, he refused to criticise the Portuguese.

He said: “I want to look forward. As you know, I have full respect for the past here. I am looking only for the positives from the past.

“We are trying from this base to change a little bit, even more than a little bit, and do it my way.

“We will do it my way, but I will not even say one negative word about the past because I don’t have negatives to say about it.”

It was a good day on Teesside for Grant and his players as Didier Drogba went some way to making amends for his outburst in a French magazine by setting his side on the road to victory within eight minutes of kick-off.

The points were assured when Brazilian defender Alex, deputising in for the injured John Terry, smashed home a 57th-minute free-kick from 35 yards.

Chelsea might have won even more comfortably as Boro struggled to make an impact, but Drogba was cheered from the pitch by the travelling supporters when he was replaced by Andriy Shevchenko five minutes from time.

Grant was at pains to insist the Drogba issue had been dealt with.

He said: “I have seen Didier in the last month in training, in my room, on the pitch and I haven’t had one problem.

“If he has done something off the pitch and he regrets it, it’s good.

“He is not a negative person. If he was negative on the pitch or in the dressing room or when he spoke to me, that is another story.

“But it’s not like this. Players need to speak on the pitch, and he did that very well.

“I can tell you I have heard what the player said to me and how he has behaved on the pitch and off the pitch.

“When he speaks to me, he is very positive and when he is on the pitch, he is very positive. He is not a negative guy, and that is what’s important.”

If Grant left Teesside a happy man, opposite number Gareth Southgate was left to reflect upon a third successive Premier League defeat.

He said: “It was, by the end, very flat, which when it is at home, is always disappointing – well, more than disappointing.

“We didn’t get out of the blocks at all, we didn’t make contact with them up to the point where they scored the goal, really.

“That’s the fourth game on the bounce where we have conceded in the first 10 minutes, and it gives you an absolute mountain to climb.”