Fernando Torres has expressed his gratitude to the Chelsea fans for their support, despite the disastrous start at his new club. Since his £50 million move from Anfield to Stamford Bridge Torres has experienced the most miserable time of his professional football career.

Torres spoke to Chelsea TV after his first Premier League red card against Swansea on Saturday:
“Obviously, when you are doing great, scoring goals from the first day and doing good performances, it’s easy for the fans to love and support you. But the first six months for me at Chelsea have been very, very difficult and I have been struggling, and I have always had the support of the fans.
From the first day till now, every time I talk with them on the street, the cafe, everywhere, I can feel the support they are giving me so it is nice to start scoring for them.”

Torres has so far only scored three goals for Chelsea but despite poor form, terrible misses and a red card, there have been plenty of indications that he’s about to find back to his form of old. Torres will play in Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League match against Valencia before starting his three match ban in the Premier League.

UPDATE: 23 June 2011
After a battle to get the Turkish FA to accept Guus Hiddink breaking his contract, Chelsea instead pursued and successfully appointed Porto coach Andre Villas-Boas to take over at Stamford Bridge.

Carlo Ancelotti was sacked as Chelsea manager shortly after the 0-1 loss to Everton.
Sources within the Chelsea ranks reveal they’re going after Dutchman Guus Hiddink. Hiddink is currently coach of the Turkish national team, a position he has held since last August.
Hiddink was caretaker manager of Chelsea the last three months of the 2008-09 season. In that period he lifted the FA Cup trophy with the club, before Carlo Ancelotti was appointed new manager. Hiddink was at the same time also coach for the Russian national team. He has also coached the national sides of Australia, South Korea and the Netherlands.

Guus Hiddink enjoyed his greatest success as manager of Eredivisie side PSV Eindhoven in the late 1980s and during a later spell between 2002-2006. Hiddink is a friend of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich but whether they will succeed in making Hiddink break his contract with Turkey is still to be seen.

It was certainly weather for ducks when Fernando Torres finally broke his goal drought.
In pouring rain on a pitch more suited for water polo Torres scored his first ever goal for Chelsea.
The £50 million man danced through the West Ham defense, made a pirouette worthy of Swan Lake, and then steered the ball past West Ham goalkeeper Rob Green.
Chelsea were clinging on to a 1-0 lead, courtesy of Frank Lampard, when Torres came on as a substitute in the 77th minute. Seven minutes later Torres made the run through the West Ham defense, played through by Nicolas Anelka. Any football fan, not only the Chelsea supporters, would have enjoyed Torres’ delight in displaying he still has his magic touch. Into injury time, seven minutes later, Torres made the assist when Florent Malouda made it 3-0 for Chelsea.

Watch video: Torres scores for Chelsea

David Luiz is a defender who plays for English side Chelsea and the Brazilian national team. Luiz joined Sao Paolo, one of Brazil’s great clubs, as a nine year old. Aged fourteen he was released to Esporte Clube Vitória, of lesser stature but with a very successful youth system. Five years later, in 2006, Luiz made his senior debut for Vitória. The 2006-07 season saw them earn promotion from the Serie C. Luiz contributed with several good performances but also had the season plagued by injuries.
In January 2007 Luiz moved to Portugal, on loan to Benfica. That move was made permanent ahead of the 2007-08 season. Luiz settled quickly at Benfica and was an important part of the team winning the Portuguese league cup in 2008-09 and again in 2009-10. The 2009-10 season Benfica also won the Portuguese league again for the first time in five years.

Luiz played his first match for Brazil in August 2010, in new coach Mano Menezes first match in charge.
On the last day of the January 2011 transfer window Luiz signed for Chelsea in a €25 million move from Benfica. He has been an instant favourite with the Chelsea fans. In his first five Premier League starts he has already been Man of the Match twice, against Fulham and Manchester City. He has also scored both against Manchester United and Manchester City. David Luiz turns 24 in exactly one month and the future looks bright for him, as part of the creation of a new Chelsea and a new Brazil.

The start of the 2010/11 season looked to be business-as-usual at Chelsea FC, having won the double the previous season. Again they were top of the league, they scored more goals than any other team and Chelsea simply looked the best team in England. That was until November 11th when assistant coach Ray Wilkins was sacked by the club.

There had been one small hick-up at the very beginning of the season, when Chelsea lost the Community Shield match to Manchester United. That soon seemed to be forgotten when the Premier League season went ahead with Chelsea dictating the pace. They started off by beating WBA 6-0 at home and the following week beating Wigan 6-0 away. Stoke was beaten 2-0, West Ham 3-1, then Blackpool 4-0 before losing 0-1 away to Manchester City. They were quickly back on track again beating Arsenal 2-0, drawing 0-0 away to Aston Villa, beating Wolverhampton 2-0, beating Blackburn 2-1 before losing 0-2 to Liverpool at Anfield on November 7th. On November 10th they beat Fulham 1-0 at home on Stamford Bridge. The day after Ray Wilkins was sacked with immediate effect.

In the first match after Wilkins’ departure Chelsea were thrashed 0-3 at home by Sunderland. Next they were defeated 0-1 away to Birmingham followed by a 1-1 draw away to Newcastle. Two more 1-1 draws came at home to Everton and away to Tottenham, before a 1-3 defeat away to Arsenal. In the last match of 2010 Chelsea ended their worst Premier League run for more than a decade by beating Bolton 1-0 at Stamford Bridge. 2011 has continued with more of the same. First a 3-3 draw against Aston Villa, a 0-1 defeat to Wolverhampton. Then they looked like getting back into their winning way by beating Blackburn 2-0, Bolton 4-0 and Sunderland 4-2. After a high profile move by Liverpool striker Fernando Torres to the club, it was back to disappointing results, losing 0-1 at home to Liverpool and drawing 0-0 with Fulham. At present they are placed 5th in the league, which means they are outside a place in the Champions League unless things picks up again.

On February 19th Chelsea were knocked out in the 4th round of the FA Cup by Everton. They were already knocked out of the League Cup in September in a 3-4 defeat to Newcastle. Next Danish champions FC København awaits in the round of 16 in the UEFA Champions League. København are regarded as the weakest team left in the competition and not progressing to the next round would be a catastrophy for Chelsea.

There can be no doubt that manager Carlo Ancelotti is under extreme pressure. Club owner Roman Abramovich has so far supported Ancelotti, however the Russian wants results and trophies. The players have criticised the sacking of Ray Wilkins. Ancelotti has claimed it was completely out of his hands what happened. Lately he has even stated “It’s the same; with Ray and without Ray.” Ancelotti denies that Wilkins’ departure has effected the team morale. He also denies any rumours that he himself might quit the job. After former Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri’s recent resignation at AS Roma, there was apparent interest from the Italian club to lure Ancelotti away from Chelsea. Ancelotti insists he won’t consider his position with Chelsea, it’s up to Abramovich to do that. Should they slump even further behind in the Premier League and indeed exit the Champions League at the hands of a Danish club, that could be considered fairly soon.