"They Deserved It"

“We didn’t get started from the first whistle,” said a forlorn looking Mick McCarthy after his side took a 3-0 thumping from newly promoted Queens Park Rangers.

“Why that is, goodness knows.”

Maybe it was the distraction of a power cut at the Molineux, that almost caused the fixture to be abandoned, just 3 hours before kick-off that unsettled Mick’s Wolves side but the Wolves boss wasn’t going to make excuses for his sides poor performance.

“I wont take anything away from them, they played well,” added McCarthy.

“But they were aided and abated by a poor performance from all of us, myself included, that was as bas as we’ve been.”

Wolves’ awful start was punished by a ruthless QPR. With new faces all over the starting eleven including Luke Young, Shawn Wright-Phillips and Joey Barton Neil Warnock’s men have transformed from a relegation favorite to a strong candidate for Premiership survival in a matter of weeks.

Barton was the first to beat Wayne Hennessey, clipping a scuffed shot into the bottom corner after Wright-Phillips bounced his volleyed cross towards the new QPR captain.

After nine minutes the visitors had doubled their lead, this time Barton turning provider as his cross was never cleared from danger by the leaky Wolves defense, Alejandro Faurlin chested the lose ball down before hitting a his strike into Hennessey’s bottom corner from 20 yards out.

QPR pressed for most of the game as the Wolves midfield of struggled to contain and hold the visitor’s advances.

Barton, Wright-Phillips and Faurlin all had chances to grab a third, including a Wright-Phillips strike that struck the foot of the post before bouncing back to a grateful Hennessey.

But Wolves clung on until, with three minutes remaining, substitute DJ Cambell grabbed his first goal of the campaign, placing the ball into an empty net after Armand Traore broke into the Wolves box before squaring to his Rangers team mate.

Carl Henry had almost pulled Wanderers right back into the fixture just after QPR took their second goal. But the midfielder’s effort struck the outside of the post and bounced clear, to the dismay of the fans behind the goal.

Henry’s effort proved to be the only real chance of the game for Wolves, aside from a late free kick from Jamie O’Hara, and McCarthy knows that his sides performance is disappointing especially after their bright start the season.

“We played well last week. We’ve had four excellent performances up until today.”

“They [QPR] deserved to win, they were better then us today.”

Wolves Slump as New Look Rangers Storm On

Wolverhampton slumped to a 3-0 defeat at home to Premiership new boys QPR in a game that almost never happened.

Even before a ball was kicked there was drama at Molineux. A power cut, that affected the whole of Wolverhampton town center, threatened to force match day officials to call of the fixture just hours before kick-off.

But once lights came on and the panic was over everyone at Wolves was able to stop worrying about health and safety problems, and start worrying about a visiting QPR side who should have taken a win from Newcastle United just 6 days ago.

It was Wolves themselves, rather then the Molineux, that needed a jump-start as the visitors took the game to them from the outset.

Just seven minutes passed before Rangers had broken the deadlock and punished Wolves for their poor start.

Midfielder Alejandro Faurlin found Shawn Wright-Phillips at the back post, the little Englishman bouncing a volleyed cross into the path of Joey Barton who clipped his shot past a stretched out Wayne Hennessy and into the bottom corner.

Two minutes later their lead was doubled. Bartons ball in from the bye-line was never really cleared from danger and when the ball dropped kindly to Faurlin 20 yards from goal, the midfielder needed no excuse to lash an effort towards goal and straight into the back of the Wolves net.

Karl Henry came close to an immediate reply when his effort from the edge of the box struck the QPR post, but the ball bounced clear and Wolves went into a slump that they would never recover from.

Barton, Wright-Phillips and Faurlin all saw efforts get blocked or sail wide as Wolves hung on to stay in the contest, while Ireland Internationals Stephen Ward and Kevin Doyle received very little service going forward from their supporting cast.

Ward moved back into the back four after the break as Sam Vokes came off the bench to partner Doyle up front. Although the move re-enforced Wolves’ defenses it did little to create more opportunities going forwards as the home side continued to let QPR dominate much of the play.

Similarly Stephen Hunt’s introduction 15 minutes from time did little to inspire the Wolves midfield as it struggled to both find possession, and use the ball effectively when it did eventually came to them.

QPR go their third minutes before the final whistle.

 Wright-Phillips had previously come close to wrapping up the match, striking the foot of Hennessey’s post 12 minutes from the end, but it was substitute D J Cambell who grabbed QPR’s final goal, tucking away Armand Traore’s cross after the former Gunner broke, untracked, from inside his own half before squaring the ball to the waiting striker.  

Wolves were poor and the hand full of fans left inside the Molineux greeted the final whistle with jeers rather then cheers. A disappointing result that was matched by an even more disappointing performance

Fernando's Time Is Now

Sunday is a massive day for Fernando Torres.

Despite having still only scored one goal in a Chelsea shirt since joining in January both fans and team-mates at the club have been quick to defend the Spanish star when the critics have raised their ugly heads.

This season Fernando looks poised to pay back the faithful for their support and silence the critics once and for all.

Turn Around

It’s taken just four Premiership games for Torres to win back the plaudits of the football media.

Just 2 months ago during the Premier Leagues Asian Cup that the British pundits were calling Torres the £50 million flop, describing his play as lacking pace and confidence.

Now most of the naysayers are silent as Torres haunts the nightmares of Premiership defenders once again, playing the linking role in Chelsea’s attacks and making flashing runs off the ball to create space and catch out defenders across the back four.

A Slight Mood Killer

But still the goals haven’t come.

Despite his creative play Torres has been unlucky (or lacked confidence) in front of goal. Stoke, West Brom, Norwich and Sunderland have all denied the World Cup winner his first goal of the season, and although no game can be considered easy, Torres will be disappointed to have not broken his duck against teams that could well be in the bottom half of the table at the end of the season

The pressure is mounting on Torres to provide the goals, especially when Mr Abramovich looks at what £50 million could have bought the Blues. It would have convinced Harry Redknapp to part with Luka Modric, bought David Villa with money to spare or made a last minute swoop for pint sized Uruguayan sensation Luis Suarez.

Time To Rise To The Occasion.

With all this hanging over the Spaniard’s head it would have been no surprise to hear that Fernando was struggling to get motivated for this season.

But now with a good run of performances behind him and both Juan Mata and Raul Meireles clicking straight into the Chelsea squad with no complications there is no reason why Torres can’t take United by storm.

Goals, not a goal, are needed on Sunday for Torres make his statement. We all saw him scrape his solitary goal against West Ham last season, but Fernando hasn’t scored two goals in a game since November 7^th 2010 when, in a Liverpool shirt, he put two past Chelsea.

A pair at Old Trafford would silence critics once and for all (well a few weeks till he scores again) and Torres should be raring to go in the biggest game of Chelsea’s season so far. United’s defense will be a tough nut to crack, but coming of the back of a disappointing draw away to Benfica last Wednesday moral will be at an all time low for this season right now.  More importantly, they’ve shown that a quality side can get a result against the flying Red Devils.  A world-class squad like Chelsea’s must therefore have a chance of taking United apart.

So It’s All Waiting To Be Had

It’s there to be had for both Chelsea and Torres, but it wont come easily.

United are yet to drop a point in the League and will still be reveling in the triumph of their last two league games, a 5-0 win away at Bolton and of course that 8-2 humiliation of Arsenal at Old Trafford.

A win for Chelsea will require maximum effort from the whole squad and 100% focus for the full 90 minutes.

But if Fernando can produce a performance that his early season form has been building up to Chelsea could walk away with either biggest points of the season so far and Torres will be able to rest knowing he has well and truly shaken the monkey off his back.

Will Monday morning’s papers read “Fernan-Doh!”or “Triumphant Torres rules in Trafford”. I can’t wait to see.