The best of football action is going to restart as the English Premier League gets underway in a couple of weeks. After a hectic transfer season, it would be good to watch how the teams perform in another action-packed season of England’s top flight football. And there is one player who will be specifically monitored closely by everyone this season – none other than Chelsea’s Fernando Torres.
The curios case of Chelsea’s Fernando Torres
To be true, the eyes of all football pundits and fans are all focused on Torres since the day he was transferred to Chelsea for a British record transfer fee of £50 million, with one common question being asked – Is he going to get back to his best again? or Have we already witnessed the best of him in a red shirt?
Fernando Torres was a young sensation when he arrived at Liverpool FC in 2007. In his first two seasons, he became famous for ripping apart big defensive line-ups like the partnership of arch-rival Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic. Soon after expectations of fans increased, as Liverpool looked towards their first title since 1990, Torres could not maintain his fitness level which once terrorized the top defenders and goalkeepers in the Premiership.
With repeating injury problems, he never looked near his best and finally took the decision to leave Anfield for Stamford Bridge. His sudden turn over from the Merseyside club to London enraged Liverpool fans, who went on to the extent of burning his ‘No. 9’ and ‘El-Nino’ jerseys. God knows what will happen when he will play for Chelsea against his former club this season at Anfield!
After the record transfer, just when he was returning to form under Kenny Dalglish, everyone was confident that World Cup winner Torres would continue his comeback from a series of poor performances and soon return back to his best. But, that never happened as Torres returned back to his bad patch which has remained with him since the World Cup 2010.
In the half season he played for the Blues, Torres managed to score just one goal and hardly showed the ‘killer instinct’ he has now become famous for. Besides, there were problems in developing a good chemistry with his new forward partners Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka. Carlo Ancelotti, Chelsea’s then manager, had a tough time in the final games as he had to play the out-of form Torres in favour of Drogba only because of his big money move.
It will be interesting to see what Torres, who recently said that ‘he has not forgotten how to score’, can produce under new manager Andre Villas-Boas. If Chelsea are to re-claim the Premier League title, they will definitely need the very best of Fernando Torres… Hope they get it this time around!
Tags: Chelsea, English Premier League, EPL, Fernando Torres, Football, Premier League
