Fernando Torres’ spectacular return to form continued with a hat trick against QPR, his first since 2009. The Spaniard insisted the best is yet to come despite having hit seven goals in his last 11, having previously gone 25 games without a goal.
Torres feels he is approaching a return to his absolute best in the run in for the title and ahead of Spain’s Euro 2012 campaign. And a return to the standard he reached at Liverpool would be most welcome for Chelsea and Spain in their respective campaigns for European glory this summer.
When asked if he was returning to his best the Spaniard simply replied “Do I feel like my old self? Yes.”
This will come as a worry to Bayern Munich and the rest of Europe. If he is on the verge of returning to his best the £50million Chelsea spent on him could soon seem a bargain. If he carries this recent form into next season there is nothing to say he could not lead Chelsea to a real title challenge, and perhaps another European Cup final.
Torres has more than doubled his Chelsea goal tally since Roberto Di Matteo took over at Stamford Bridge, adding seven to his tally in recent weeks. He is keen to not take all the credit, putting Chelsea’s change in fortunes down to a blunt realisation, “We understood that we needed to play as a team”. And that seems to have been the secret behind Di Matteo’s successes. The team seem far more unified than it did under Andre Villas Boas and Torres is not the only one to have hugely benefitted from it.
Should Chelsea and Torres perform to the best of their ability it is possible that what seemed to be a season doomed to failure could become the greatest in the clubs history. An FA Cup win and a victory in Munich will mark a spectacular recovery for club.