PARDEW BACKS TORRES

Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew said that he is hoping that the recovery in form Fernando Torres has been showing in recent weeks will not be displayed when his side take on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night.

It is highly crucial match for Newcastle given that they come on the back of a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Wigan during the weekend. It has dented their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League this season, but they can still recover from the defeat provided they put in a good performance against Chelsea.

Fernando Torres looked like his old self in the match against QPR during the weekend. The striker bagged his first hat-trick in almost 3 years in order to continue his recovery from the goal drought he has suffered since arriving at Chelsea. The £ 50 million striker has scored seven goals in his last 11 appearances for Chelsea including the crucial goal against Barcelona during the week. Torres seemed a different player against QPR mainly because of the confidence he got from the goal against Barcelona. However, Alan Pardew is just hoping that Torres will be having an off day when the two sides meet each other.

“Listen, great players very rarely are down for long. I am pleased for him personally. I have been to a few games where I have seen him suffer, and don’t think as professionals you want to see that from a fellow professional. He looks like he’s got a nice smile on his face – I just hope he isn’t smiling on Wednesday,” Pardew said ahead of the match. Newcastle slipped into the fifth position after the weekend defeat at the hands of Wigan. Tottenham, their main contenders, will be having an away match against Bolton.