Is Torres the new Shevchenko?

FERNANDO TORRES may have played only two games for Chelsea since a £50m (€58m) transfer from Liverpool but such is modern football’s insatiable desire for instant gratification that already the dreaded words ‘Andriy Shevchenko’ are being whispered nervously around Stamford Bridge.

Torres has scored no goals, been substituted twice and missed four chances in the matches he has played since an astonishing move from Anfield on transfer deadline day; and until he breaks that duck, the ghosts of Chelsea’s past are likely to be awakened.

It is hugely unfair on a player who cannot possibly by judged on 137 minutes of football in a blue shirt but the truth is the pressure of his transfer fee is further weighted by a history of big-money strikers who failed to deliver in west London.