Torres and Sturridge could be a partnership built to last
While Fernando Torres’ lack of goals has made the headlines, Daniel Sturridge has also struggled to score of late.
Of course Sturridge didn’t cost £50m, but after an excellent first half of the season he had not scored in the league for 10 games – a run stretching back to the week before Christmas – before finding the net on Saturday.
So it was all the more welcome for Chelsea fans to see Sturridge and Torres both on the scoresheet against Aston Villa.
After being a bit-part player in his first two seasons at the club, Sturridge became an automatic choice under Andre Villas-Boas.
His goals and all-round good play earned him an England debut and it looked like he had arrived on the big stage. But then the goals stopped.
A club employee said to me last week that Sturridge is like Torres, in that they both lose confidence when they are not scoring.
He contrasted this with Didier Drogba, whose confidence levels are always high and whose mood is not affected by a spell without goals as long as the team is doing well.
But whereas Torres’s loss of confidence sometimes seemed to make him scared to shoot, Sturridge often seemed so desperate to score he would shoot when it really wasn’t the right choice.
The saying goes that form is temporary but class is permanent – and Sturridge and, especially, Torres are both class.
If the pair of them can take the confidence boost from the goals at Villa Park and shine for the rest of the season, who knows what Chelsea can achieve?
And with Torres only just turned 28 and Sturridge a mere 22, who’s to say they won’t be spearheading Chelsea’s attack for a few seasons to come?
James Clarke is the author of Moody Blues: Following the second-best team in Europe
