dodojojo

No one can slate Torres, he played well tonight and deserved a goal. But the media and haters will certainly keep up the "he hasn't scored yet, he's a flop" routine. Perfect night, Chelsea win and Tottenham lost. A Nando goal would have been a bonus.

That's not very nice. Torres will score sooner or later...

So the reports that he had done his initiation song and he sang YNWA....was wrong? Shocking. Knew it was bullshit when they reported that the guys were impressed with his singing. Me thinks singing isn't one of his strong points.

Fantastic! Hopefully, it'll be a game worth downloading....

May not be able to watch the game live today, is there a site where I can download Chelsea games? I'd prefer one dedicated to Chelsea games. Liverpool has a very good blogspot site that has every single game up, usually within 48 hours.

I haven't used Facebook in a long time, but when I go to his PFA FB site, I see 5.5M people "liking" it. How did the article come up with 980K members/followers? The most amazing thing is he's the most popular EPL player on the site and he doesn't even use FB. Torres does everything through his own official site. I'm a little miffed by his (or management's) refusal to utilize social media but I guess the aim is to maximize traffic to his site. More on his site

You're kidding right? That's his face! He can't change that, other than asking a couple of teammates to kick his face in so he'll look hard. He's nicknamed El Nino for a reason. Full team debut at 17, club captain at 19. He carried Atletico for years while still very young, had the guts to leave his boyhood team to play in a foreign league and then spurned hero worship for a rival club. He's very ambitious and just because he doesn't look like Vinne Jones doesn't mean he's a weakling.

I haven't read much from LFC forums today but funny enough, they're saying that Chelsea fans have turned on him already. I'm not in England so I'm not getting the radio shows and papers, but from I've read here and a couple of other CFC boards, most have been quite level-headed about Torres.

I agree with you in principle though I think the physical decline isn't quite so clear. He's still quite pacey when he needs to motor it. I think the stop and start acceleration is what he's missing the most. Like all athletes, he'll need to adjust his game as he gets older. I'm sure he's smart enough to do it, the issue would be if his ego will recognize the need to change.

The "problem" is that Torres' bedded in so well and quickly with Liverpool, the expectations are justifiably sky-high. Not much you can do about that. And understandably in the heat of a CL qualifying race, emotions tend to be high and extremely short-fused. And the handful of Berbatov fans look good now, but remember, tons of ManU fans were calling him BerbaFlop for a very long time. Funny, I wanted to post this before the game but didn't want to jinx it but no matter now. Torres didn't score in his first league game for Atletico, but did in his second. He didn't score in his first league game for Liverpool but did in his second. I was hoping for the same yesterday but alas no dice.

I agree Ancelotti should play him 90 minutes, especially like yesterday where his movement was quite good. Pity the passes weren't there and his touch was so awful. Had he scored on the Luiz pass or if Lampard had given him a better ball when they were both in/near the box, everyone would be saying how fantastic Torres was last night. His movement and spacing were there. His touch and his teammates' passes were not.

His first touch has always been his weakness. It ranges from the ridiculous to the sublime. Since he was a teenager, coaches have said that he needed to improve his first touch. Unfortunately it's still something he never has been able to master. On his day he's one of the best strikers in the world. Imagine what he would be like if he had a consistent first touch. As I've posted before, he would be up there with Ronaldo and Messi.

It's hilarious that Luiz is being called Sideshow Bob. It's not just the hair, there's a similarity in the face too. If Sideshow Bob was a young handsome footballer, he would be David Luiz.

He needs to hire on Valero on personal basis to sort out himself in front of goal. He has been subpar this season. Totally agree with the substitution. Fulham were content with the gaolless draw and Chelsea should have poured it on for goal.

If Drogba and Torres are to be played together, Anelka should not be in the hole or the "10" role. He simply can't do it. Unfortunately, right now, there doesn't seem to be anyone else at Chelsea who can play this role.

He was exploiting the Fullham defense as he was in a couple of clear scoring positions. That Luiz hoof pass to Torres isn't all that different from what Torres did to Vidic in 2009. Problem is his finishing and I think that will improve with time on the pitch and confidence. Ancelotti should not have taken him off when Chelsea needed a goal and he was still involved. I'll take this back if Ancelotti believes Torres was tired and slowing down.

Torres was getting into the thick of things, just that his touch let him down horribly. Whatever Benetiz had him doing when he first moved to Liverpool to improve his striking--he needs to get back to working on it. He's blowing chances like he was known for when at Atletico. Not to sugarcoat things because he squandered a hattrick of chances yesterday but I'm highly encouraged by his movement and positioning. And no, Ancelotti shouldn't have taken him off, not when you need a goal. Torres would have put himself into some chances and good strikers, even when they're blowing things right, left and center, only need one chance to make things right. Look at Inzaghi through out this career.

So frustrating to watch. Luiz looked so good and comfortable anywhere on the pitch. Torres was very lively and put himself into some good positions but was very poor and unlucky in the 18 yard box. I'm glad to see him putting himself out there but the missed chances must be gutting him (it's gutting me...). Still he'll have to hold his hand up and claim some responsbility. Having said that, Ancelotti has to keep playing him because he's keeping defenders honest with his movement and the sharpness will come around. I'm a little disappointed Ancelotti took him off because his movement was still a threat. Though Drogba was quite lively himself. The team overall is still lacking sharp passing and fluency from the midfield and I'm not sure what Anelka was doing.

<br /><br /><br />Arghh...too much pressure. All I ask is that Ancelotti puts out the best line-up to get a result. If Chelsea wins and Torres contributes, either through goals or good play or both, then I'll be over the moon.

Steven Gerrard in an interview which he states: "They didn’t want to sell Fernando. They spent the last few weeks trying to keep him. But when a player makes his mind up, you can’t stand in his way." I'm harping on the timing point because you hear so many Liverpool fans moaning on about Torres putting in the transfer request ONLY THREE DAYS before the deadline, what a bastard he is, etc. The transfer request was the mere formality. Torres has said that he was upfront with Liverpool about wanting to go and how he kept quiet at the club's request. Well Gerrard's confirm that. Why would the club spend weeks trying to keep Torres if he hadn't made it clear he wanted to go? And seriously, do Liverpool fans truly believe 50M transfer deals start and finish within 3 days? Or that Andy Carroll's deal sprung up on Sunday evening and concluded on Monday afternoon? The clubs had been talking, the wheels were in motion for awhile and just because the clubs do not publicize it doesn't mean it's not taking place. Good example is that we've since learnt that Chelsea did indeed bid for Torres last summer and that was kept quiet for half a year.

I'm sure Agger read the riot act to Andy Carroll for ditching his hometown team for an PL outfit. I'm sure of it. Liverpool does not do hypocrisy.

As the hoopla dies down, he and everyone can focus on business--winning games for Chelsea. The convergence of the transfer, Liverpool game and international duty in Madrid where of course he would attract a lot of attention, have created a crazy 10 days or so. I don't think it's something he wanted. But as far as retiring at AM, it has always been assumed he would do that. Don't make it a big deal.

Guess it's classier to say "history" rather than we used to be good.

Torres leaving any club is big news for Spain. Agree about the LFC connection too.

Soapbox Not being from England, I really don’t get the obsession with the big club status. I understand that there are traditionally strong clubs and it’s great to recognize history. To obsess about and to be so touchy about it though smacks of a huge insecurity. It’s like old nobility protecting their status in a society which already has moved onto the modern world. Liverpool fans want everyone else to bow and scrape to them because they were once the privileged. Everyone else is lives in the 21st century and asks, “why should I defer to you? I’ve achieved things rather than reading about or remembering them.” I support a team in basketball that dominated 30-40 years ago. So I can commiserate with Liverpool fans. But after awhile, it’s no good to keep on and on about winning 10 championships in 12 years 4 decades ago. I’m proud of my team’s history but I don’t go around telling everyone we’ve got more championships than you, so therefore your recent achievements mean less. It’s really small time behavior. The Yankees don’t do it. When they don’t win, they reload. The same with the Lakers. That’s why they’ve been so consistently successful. They celebrate being great, they don’t have time or the need to remind people how great they were in the distant past.