Andre Villas Boas says Tottenham were undone by the creative brilliance of Chelsea but believes is team can bounce back from the 4-2 defeat.

Spurs came from 1-0 down to take the lead in the second half but two goals from Juan Mata and a late Daniel Sturridge tap-in ended Spurs’ run of four wins on the trot.

Villas Boas said: “It was a game full of emotion. There were lots of chances for both teams. I would say we became very strong in the second half and full of desire to turn things around, which we did.

“But I think through the individual brilliance Chelsea has, they always unlock defences and when they committed themselves to it they caused us problems and went on to get the result. In the end, creativeness and brilliance solved the game and Oscar, Hazard and Mata were brilliant.”

The match was the first time Villas Boas has come up against his former employers since being sacked from Stamford Bridge last season.

But the Portuguese preferred to focus on his current target of getting Spurs in to the Champions League.

He said: “This is more about us at the moment – we were on a very good run of results that has come to a halt against Chelsea but we have to bounce back because we have proven ourselves against top teams.

“We’ve played really well today and I think when you have players with this commitment, this desire and showing this ambition, you have to bounce back from adversity and concentrate on the 30 more games ahead.”

Gareth Bale, named on the initial team sheet, pulled out of the match at the last minute to drive to South Wales where his partner had gone into labour.

Moussa Dembele was also out after picking up a knock on international duty with Belgium this week.

Villas Boas said: “Moussa’s and Gareth’s presence was missed but we have very good players and very good options. Tom (Huddlestone) played really well, Sigurdsson played extremely well, Ade from the bench played extremely well so the squad is good, we have good players and we take it as it is.”

The Spurs boss shook hands with several members of the Chelsea bench before kick-off but says there are no hard feelings between himself and the majority of the Blues staff.

He said: “Most of them I’ve been in touch with or have seen so I keep in touch with them, not all of the people, but I salute them for everything they did for me and my career.”