Strike

yeah but he has missed a fair few chances this season. sitters. also his goals except for the newcastle one were fairly routine finishes that u shud expect out of him. remarkably better so far but the next few games will show us whether he is main striker material

Chelsea Football Club was engulfed in a flurry of excitement 2 years ago when the club pulled off a British record 50m transfer of Spanish striker Fernando Torres on transfer deadline day. A Torres-Drogba combination up front was something you’d expect to see on FIFA but Roman Abramovich with his abundant wealth made it happen for Chelsea. However, the optimism surrounding Torres’ arrival soon faded as he failed to find the back of the net for 903 mins (14 games) in a Chelsea shirt and 2 years on now, his Chelsea career has been nothing short of a train wreck. Now with Roberto di Matteo in charge and a shift in the style of play, Torres has run into some kind of form but the question still remains, Is he the man to lead Chelsea’s attack? Torres started the season on the back of a horrid 2011-12 season. The shocker of a miss at Old Trafford, the red card after scoring a goal against Swansea and the fact that he was forced to watch our revival under di Matteo from the bench, sums up his season. Sure, he won the FA Cup and the Champions League but he did not start either of the finals. The sight of Salomon Kalou starting ahead of him in Munich clearly got to his head and he had this to say regarding the matter:- But then in the summer, Didier Drogba left the club and Torres was confirmed as the number one striker. In addition to that, the club replaced Kalouda with skillful technical players like Hazard and Oscar who are better suited to Torres’ style of play and now 7 games into the season, things are looking better for the Spaniard with 6 goals already to his name this season (4 in the league) and Chelsea are sitting pretty at the top of the table, 4 points clear of the nearest rival. But despite the better goal return, Torres’ has looked a shadow of the player he once was. There was a time when he took Vidic for a spin at Old Trafford but now he seems to be unable to get past Anton Ferdinand. Take note of the fact that 2 of the goals he has scored are from set-pieces and not due to his prowess in front of goal. He is no longer “terrorizing” the opposition defence and he has been anonymous in a fair few games this season restricting his involvement to linking up with the midfielders and running the channels. The Torres’ of the old would look for the through balls behind the opposition defence and bury his chances but as we saw against Arsenal and against Norwich, he seems reluctant to pull the trigger these days. He was away from Koscielny and bearing down on goal and instead of burying it in the corner he tried to get past the advancing keeper allowing Koscielny to nick possession from him. On the other hand, things have definitely improved. His goal against Newcastle was excellent and showed that his finishing is still good. Now that there is not much competition for the striker’s slot, he has started all of Chelsea’s games this season (the only player to do so) and the continuous run of games has boosted his confidence (see Rabona against Newcastle) Plus, he is now receiving better service from the 3 maestros – Oscar Mata and Hazard. But is he the man to lead our attack? He is 28 now and has got maybe 2-3 seasons in his tank and with Daniel Sturridge and Romelu Lukaku already waiting in the wings at Chelsea. Sturridge, as we all know is a terrific talent and has been waiting for a run of games in the centre-forward role and Lukaku has been in brilliant form on his loan spell at West Brom. I am on the fence regarding the whole Torres matter. Fernando has been good(ish) so far but needs to get much better as the season progresses. Our defenders and midfielders chip in with a fair few goals but it was Didier Drogba who used to fire for us in the big games. He has scored 9 times in Final matches and has scored 8 goals in 8 games at Wembley. Moreover, he has 13 goals against Arsenal and 4 goals in 4 FA Cup finals. Now, with Drogba gone, Torres needs to step up for us in the big games and add that little spark up front. It doesn’t matter how many goals he scores against the likes of Reading and Norwich if he keeps bottling in the big games.This is a key season in that aspect for Torres as the coming months will decide whether he will be remembered for his time in a Blue shirt. Click here to view the article

But remember how distorted our attack was against QPR. Moses was huggin the touchline on the right side and the rest were clustered in the middle. In the end even Moses went narrow and the dribble and cross he played (Hazard miss) was almost from inside the box. We haven't managed to integrate width into our side because of Hazard and Mata. those two continuously cut in and our width comes only from our full-backs. But yeah, we are not fashioning nearly enough chances. The narrow system maybe at fault there as our midfield was almost standing in a straight line the other day against Norwich but it hasn't really improved by putting Moses and that's why I hope Rdm persists with Oscar Mata Hazard. their understanding is growing and given that ivanovic and cole are providing good width for the team, i want Romeu in for Ramires if he is ruled out

if Ramires is ruled out i would prefer Oriol Romeu coming in for a straight swap as it wouldn't change the complexion of the side much. Bringing Oscar to the middle is not a bad option given how hardworking he is on the pitch but then we have to go for either Moses, Sturridge or Marin in the attacking midfield slot and none of them have had enough game time and 2 of them are only returning from injury. plus they are all essentially wide players, bringing any one of them in will see Sturridge/Moses/Marin hugging the touchline while Eden and Mata try to cut inside often. the current narrow system is working well for us with the triangular passing in and around the box. Oscar Mata Hazard in the attacking midfield role would be better in that sense

then cfc went up the other end and Ramires dinked it over Cudicini for 3-1

flies right in the face of our current narrow system

congrats mate! best wishes to you and your family

we are not creating chances fluently. kinda narrow when we play. the pivot and the 3 attackin mids stand almost in a straight line

Lampard should be used like Scholes is used at United. still has experience and as he showed against Norwich, still buries chances from the edge of the box

not bad at all. looking forward to free time now. gonna play my FPL wildcard i guess. happy days

finally done with exams. 18 days of bliss now. too bad there's no Prem League this weekend

Who should be first choice - Friedel or Lloris? Sigurdsson or Dempsey and Defoe or Adebayor?

idiotic. wonder how he writes for the BBC

i remember 3-2 in 2006. Class Goals

last year he did something worse. after the manure vs qpr game where jamie mackie ripped evra apart, he went onto name evra in his team of the week lol http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/16234573

paulo ferreira and Jose bosingwa bossed Bale last season Bale can be kept quiet. the pace in their attacks needs to be stifled though. very different from the arsenal game and if we leave holes at the back like we usually do , we'll be ripped apart for pace. hazard is a natural athlete and Oscar has a surprisingly good work rate so i m not worried about the midfield collapsing, only the defence is a worry.

tough games comin up for cfc though

65 points this week. Roman Rules next. I guess I'll play my wildcard

yeah. they probably counted those 2 penalties hazard won as well

but they did highlight one aspect of our play. we are a very narrow team. if we rely on our full backs for width against bigger sides, we might get exploited ( atletico ) . but we are retaining possession better. luiz has reduced his Hollywood passes recently and we are knocking it around the opposition rather than stick it up top. good stuff

Top scorers 1 Demba Ba Newcastle United 6 2 Steven Fletcher Sunderland 5 Michu Swansea City 5 Luis Suárez Liverpool 5 Robin van Persie Manchester United 5 6 Peter Crouch Stoke City 4 Jermain Defoe Tottenham Hotspur 4 Nikica Jelavić Everton 4 Rickie Lambert Southampton 4 Fernando Torres Chelsea 4 Assists 1 Eden Hazard Chelsea 6 2 Juan Mata Chelsea 4 Santi Cazorla Arsenal 3

they didn't want to risk them as they would get 2 more weeks of rehabilitation after this game

you can be critical of Fernando's performance as he missed two absolute sitters but the distinct change in his style of play yesterday was heartening to see. not only did he provide a cushion to link up with but he even made the runs behind the norwich back four. he should ve scored but still it was great to watch. well timed header too

Robert Lewandowski. fits the current system

apparently that is how you pronounce his name. "Azzar'" Jim Beglin confirmed it with Eden himself. sucks, i know