Fernando Torres: Proper Chelsea!

Another weekend, another set of Torres headlines and all focusing on what he did wrong! The poor bloke just can’t get it right for getting it wrong now or can he?
Well I guess if anyone else scored two goals in two games they might have the press kissing their arse, with Torres though, firstly he’ll have to score a lot more than a couple to get anyone outside of Chelsea puckering up and secondly, he’ll have to stay on the field long enough for them to notice what he contributes outside of the goals.
The bottom line for us lately is, he has scored two in two and there have been signs of his former self re-emerging (and not just the sly highlights creeping back in).  His goal against United was pure Fernando Torres and his take and shot against Swansea would have had many scousers shuffling if he’d still been in their shirt. Make no mistake about it, Torres is finding his way back in spite of everything the doubters throw at him.
Unfortunately for the Spaniard though, the gods seem to be dishing out handfuls of the stuff to be slung as if the flush is broken and they’re all out of spades to bury it. Whilst he resumed his affinity with the back of United’s net one minute, he looked as if the stranded Dea Gea had let slip a second would result in a one-way ticket back to Anfield the next.  And as if that miss wasn’t enough to keep the shit-slingers in business, after he’d scored against Swansea and been involved in the move that led to Ramires’ goal, a rush of blood to the head saw him heading down the tunnel rather sooner than he’d hoped.
Mind you, whilst this weekend may well have done him no favours with the press, with Chelsea it seems to have had the opposite effect. Whilst another goal might have had us wondering if he’s on his way back from the barren spell, that challenge left us in no doubt at all, that as far as Chelsea is concerned – Nando’s arrived.
Not that we need any of our new signings to collect themselves a red card to prove themselves worthy of our support but I guess as much as we’d like to have believed otherwise, the odd doubt was there. Was his lack of goals a sign that he wasn’t trying hard enough? The poor form a reflection of him being unhappy at the club? Another mercenary there for himself and sod the team ethic?
Well, for me (and I’m sure plenty of others), that challenge was all the evidence needed to dispel the doubts. Not because he could have broken an opponents leg (obviously) but what it represented. Torres was completely keyed up after his goal but that didn’t have him sitting up front, hanging about to see what else might come his way. In fact, he was running his arse off, and clearly prepared to fight for anything.  So that ‘fight’ saw him go in with a little too much enthusiasm, so what?
Whether his critics like it or not, it was the ball he was going in for, not the man. He’s hardly Vinny Jones is he? In fact, this weekend has cleared it up completely – He’s Fernando Torres, Chelsea’s number 9!
And he’s proper Chelsea!

Chelsea Back On Track With AVB?

I might be more than happy to sing the praises of Andre Villas-Boas given the opportunity but the Chelsea manager doesn’t think he’s doing anything special at Chelsea really, in fact, as far as he’s concerned he’s just doing what’s expected.
On our start to the 2011/12 campaign, Villas-Boas insists “I think things have been going okay. We had a good start up to the Old Trafford game where we had a good performance but were unlucky with the result.  Bearing in mind the performance, normally with so many opportunities you come away with a win but it didn’t go for us in the first half in terms of efficiency and the scoreline was difficult to recover at half-time.  We are doing nothing else than what we need to do. We are expected to win every game and that’s the challenge that we have. Some results have gone our way a little bit better and others haven’t.”
We know he’s not a stranger to the Premier League, having already experienced it as Mourinho’s assistant previously, however, now managing Chelsea himself, the new boss thinks things are decidely tougher, saying “The main difference from a couple of years ago is that there are much more teams competing for the Premier League title, and more teams are also competing for the Champions League spots.  I think money has a part to play, a lot of new players have come across for various teams.   Tottenham look different from before, Liverpool the same, Stoke City will be a threat for the European places and Newcastle are back on top form.”
Not that he’s letting that bother him because AVB is confident that a little of tweaking to the set-up he inherited has put us where we need to be and the confident Chelsea boss suggests “We have evolved in the different departments.  The most important thing for us is to make the necessary judgements for the things that we need. We made a couple of changes to a couple of staff to satisfy our needs. Not that the ones before were not competent – just that it’s important for us to have everything at our disposal that we like – so we made changes to the medical department and a couple of structures at the club.  The club has evolved naturally to an even more powerful club, a more powerful brand commercially, and is on the right track.”

Filed under: Managers, Random