Will the Torres gamble work?

Chelsea go into the new season as the Premier League’s biggest gamblers; and not just because of the money spent on expensive young players such as Oscar and Hazard who may or may not adapt to the rigours of English football — and not even because of owner Roman Abramovich’s decision to give Roberto Di Matteo an extended spell as manager after lifting the Champions League trophy last season.

What will worry punters at Stamford Bridge the most this season is a decision to take Chelsea’s precious gambling chips and place all of them, with alarming over-confidence, on number nine.

That number, of course, belongs to Fernando Torres — and with Didier Drogba departed to chase the big money in China, Chelsea’s title hopes now depend almost entirely on the frustratingly inconsistent Spaniard when the roulette wheel starts spinning in earnest this weekend.

Abramovich, who has remained loyal to the striker since spending £50m to sign him from Liverpool in January 2011, expects his man to deliver now the shadow of club hero Drogba is no longer hanging over him; and Chelsea have gone to extraordinary lengths to keep their record signing happy.

The theory, perhaps, is that Torres has under-performed largely because he was unable to function at a club where the influence of Drogba was so all-consuming — and where it was so obvious he was seen as a threat to the status quo, which has been so closely guarded by a select group of players who see themselves as the backbone of Chelsea.

But what about the nig gling injuries and loss of pace that have also restricted his progress? What about the brittle self-confidence that seems to desert him at the slightest setback? And what about stories that he finds it difficult to find a social footing at a club where the spirit that shines on the pitch almost certainly begins life off it?

Even so, when Torres was close to leaving the club at the end of last season, after being left on the bench for the Champions League final in favour of his great nemesis, Chelsea instigated urgent talks to persuade him he was their number one choice for season 2012-13; and reports from behind the scenes at Stamford Bridge suggest the club’s failure to sign a big-money replacement for Drogba is a deliberate ploy. The feeling, it seems, is that such an arrival would have put Torres’ nose out of joint.

Now, with no-one but the largely untested Daniel Sturridge to challenge for his shirt in what remains a 4-5-1 formation, Torres knows he is all but guaranteed a place in the starting line-up week-in, week-out; and he has already responded with his first goal of the season in the Community Shield defeat against Manchester City.

The gamble for Chelsea, however, is whether Torres will justify the faith shown in him. Can a player who has mis-fired and disappointed for so long — some say since long before he left Anfield when he began a run of poor form that has lasted more than two years — really rediscover his touch just because he has the comfort of being first name on the teamsheet?

His form at Euro 2012 and the way he took his goal against City suggests ‘maybe’. The way he barely touched the ball for the rest of match provided a note of caution — and with so few options at the moment if Torres fails to deliver, Chelsea simply cannot afford him to fail.

Di Matteo, as you would expect, remains confident the gamble will pay dividends.

“He scored some important goals for us last season and people tend to forget that,” he said. “But I don’t want to put pressure on one player. We operate as a team and everybody needs to serve the team. Before with Didier, I don’t think it was an individual effort, it was a team effort and hopefully, our strikers will score lots of goals again. We are very confident in him and hopefully he will have a good season.”

The good news for Chelsea fans is that Torres, despite remaining sulky and aloof in his dealings with the media, has looked sharp and happy in training; and he appears to be finally getting to grips with a system that was designed with Drogba in mind.

“I don’t think many changes are going to be made to the system; we are still going to play the way we play,” insisted midfielder Mikel. “But you can see Fernando is fitting into the way we want to play and hopefully he can do the job as well.

“He’s a goalscorer, you can see that. And if he lost confidence, we hope he has regained it and we hope that during the season he will come back and become the Torres we all know.”

When put like that it seems so easy; but all the same Chelsea are taking a significant gamble — one that could make or break the future of team and manager when you consider how large a part the Torres dilemma played in the sackings of both Carlo Ancelotti and Andre Villas Boas.

So as the Blues head for Wigan, the wheel is spinning and the bets are on. But you can’t help thinking that Russian roulette is a dangerous game indeed.