SOCCER:CARLO ANCELOTTI expects to have a full complement of strikers available for selection when Chelsea's Champions League campaign resumes against Copenhagen tomorrow with the focus back on Fernando Torres, who will start the tie, to break his goalscoring duck at the club after his €58 million move from Liverpool.
Torres, who has mustered 12 shots and created eight chances for team-mates, showed flashes of form in the first leg in Denmark, and in the victory at Blackpool last week. Didier Drogba hobbled out of that win after sustaining a blow to his hip but should be fit for the game at Stamford Bridge, though Ancelotti may opt to pair Torres with Nicolas Anelka, given the Frenchman scored both goals in the 2-0 win at Parken stadium.
The Spaniard has admitted he is still settling at Chelsea and in London. “The first few weeks are not easy,” he said. “You don’t just arrive and everything is waiting for you. You have to get to grips with a new city, there’s all the paperwork, looking for an apartment . . . it takes time to find your feet and there are moments when everything seems a mess.”
Torres is hopeful he can compete for honours consistently at Chelsea. “I’m sure that my best years in the Premier League are still to come,” he said. “Now I want to settle down, to focus on football and to enjoy my time here. With Chelsea I can fight for the league title and the Champions League. Only once with Liverpool did I experience that feeling. Just over six weeks ago I wasn’t feeling as I am now. Now I feel I’m closer to what I want to achieve in football.
“I’ve spent my life trying to win and looking for titles. I have been lucky enough to win the European Championship and the World Cup with Spain. But as a footballer you also want to win with your club, the team you train with every day.
“There was only one team that could offer what I wanted, especially as I wanted to stay in England. Chelsea confirmed their interest in the January transfer window after having already tried and failed in the summer.
“I did not fancy a move to Manchester City, or a move to Manchester United out of respect and loyalty to Liverpool. I couldn’t let this chance pass me by.”
Asked whether his preference would be to win the Champions League or the Premier League, Torres said: “Definitely the Champions League. After winning the World Cup and the European Championship it is the biggest prize you can win.”
Jens Lehmann is to sign a short-term contract at his former club Arsenal before this weekend’s Premier League visit to West Bromwich Albion to ease the title challengers’ immediate injury concerns and provide cover for Manuel Almunia.
The former Germany international, who spent five years with Arsenal up to 2008, is a free agent having retired from the game in 2010 after two seasons with Stuttgart back in the Bundesliga.
The 41-year-old can be signed outside the transfer window as he is without a club, with Arsenal to assess his fitness in training over the next few days. “Arsenal have a goalkeeping emergency at the moment,” he said. “I’m glad I can help.”
