It’s hard to understand the logic behind AVB’s treatment of Torres

WE won comfortably on Saturday against Wolves, kept a clean sheet and scored three goals that were more than a little pleasing to the eye.

But let’s not fool ourselves. Wolves were utterly woeful. An over 60s asthmatic 11 could have beaten them.

You would have thought three goals in the first half would give the manager the perfect opening to give Torres some playing time, but evidently not. The majority of the crowd also seemingly wanted to see the introduction of the Spaniard and vocally left AVB in no uncertain terms of this.

Personally, I am not one for demanding the introduction of a player from the stands, substitutions should not be decided X-Factor style, but the manager’s treatment of Torres does seem unwarranted.

Even Lampard came off the bench to be given a full 20 minutes and it’s not as though anyone needed reminding of what he does. Torres has been given just 20 minutes in the last three matches and I’m not sure what AVB expects in terms of how this will work in the long run.

Does he not want the Spaniard at all? Is Torres’ performance in training so poor that AVB feels he cannot trust him? Something else?

Whatever the issue, personally I think we should be trying to build his confidence because we will be reliant on him whether we like it or not. Rumours abound that Anelka will leave in January. The African Cup of Nations too will take Drogba and Kalou which leaves Sturridge and Torres — so should we not be trying to form a partnership there?

One of the reasons Torres came to Chelsea was to play in the Champions League but after the disastrous game in Leverkusen, we may find ourselves playing in the Europa League. We have no one to blame but ourselves.

The lack of effort was painful to watch. This means we have to go out all guns blazing against Valencia. We can no longer do cautious so it will be interesting to see what that means in terms of personnel and tactics on the day.

In fact we are now entering a potentially pivotal phase of the season: the do-or-die Champions League game; the meeting with the potential new giants of English football Manchester City; and the current over-achievers Newcastle and Tottenham. If we can get to the end of December in the top three, history shows anything is possible.

Our two successive titles demonstrated not every club is susceptible to a dip but Chelsea fans need to pray those standing between us and the summit experience a dip in results.

I never expected to win the title in AVB’s first season, but nor did I expect to drop out of the top four. Evolution, not revolution has always been my mantra.

For all I know, that is exactly what AVB is attempting. But he doesn’t really tell us much in his press conferences and it is not easy to decipher what he is trying to do when we see constantly changing teams.

Hopefully things will become not only clearer but more successful and more entertaining too. We cannot, must not, keep changing managers.

Guus Hiddink in any capacity is not the answer either. Hopefully trust, some tweaks to the squad and time on the training field will help us achieve great things.

* Trizia Fiorellino