Tag: Torres

Pressure is extremely high on Tottenham striker Roberto Soldado after the Spaniard has failed to produce the goals since his £ 26 million move from Valencia in the summer. He was expected to be the club’s main source of goals after the departure of Gareth Bale. However, he has only a handful of goals since joining the club and with most of them coming from the penalty spot. He is in danger of losing his position to Emmanuel Adebayor, who was out of favour under former manager Andre Villas-Boas. Since the appointment of Tim Sherwood, Adebayor has returned to the starting line-up and has been scoring regularly.

Villas-Boas says that he can compare the situation faced by Soldado to the one experienced by Fernando Torres at Chelsea. The Spaniard has never been the same player since moving to Chelsea for a British transfer record fee of £ 50 million. There have been suggestions that the former Atletico Madrid man has failed to cope with the huge transfer fee on his shoulders. Soldado has not yet scored for Tottenham in 2014 and he was left on the bench for the big match against Chelsea last weekend.

Torres also endured similar struggles and he has been looking to get back to his former glory days ever since. Villas-Boas says Soldado needs luck in order to turn his form around.

“It’s also happened to Fernando Torres. In the Premier League it is very important the impact you made at the beginning. Soldado started the season well but he has failed to keep the regularity in terms of goals. That is crucial in a player’s adaptation to English football. His movements and his qualities as a scorer are tremendous. I’m sure his time will arrive. Maybe a little later than he expected but he has the quality to do it,” said Villas-Boas.

Fernando Torres finally found the back of the net in an away match to end the ignominious record of not a single Chelsea striker scoring away from home in the last 13 months. That record included Torres, who has been a shadow of his former self since the move from Liverpool. However, he managed to end his record by scoring with a deflected effort against Southampton. He will be hoping that the year 2014, which has begun in great fashion, finally gets him back to the top of English football.

After the match, goalkeeper Petr Cech has praised Torres and striker Samuel Eto’o for the work they have done with the club this campaign. Even though they may not have scored the number of goals like Suarez, they have been very crucial to Chelsea style of play according to Cech. He thinks that both strikers are finding form at just the right time in the season. Eto’o took a long time to score his first goal, but he has been finding the net in important matches like the one he did against Liverpool in the 2-1 win for Chelsea.

After dropping only two points during Christmas, Chelsea are finally breaking free of the chasing pack and aiming for the title along with Arsenal and Manchester City.

“It is the first day of the year so great to start it with Fernando scoring like this. Hopefully the strikers will continue to bang goals in away from home. Samuel scored an important one at home against Liverpool and now Fernando has scored a very important one against Southampton, so it is great for them. Are they finding form at the right time? Yes. They have been working really hard for the team. They have both been brilliant and now they have got their rewards with a goal,” said Cech.