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.

Stoke Surrender Late in Kiev

Cameron Jerome’s goal just before the hour mark looked to be enough to earn Stoke City all three points away in Kiev.

But a late strike from Ognjen Vukojevic deep in injury time denied the battling Potters a landmark win.

“We are obviously pig sick that we conceded such a late goal but that doesn't take any of the shine off what is an absolutely fantastic result” said Stoke boss Tony Pulis in his post-match press conference.

“We were playing against one of the top sides in Europe and we were more than a match for them. 

“What makes it particularly satisfying is that there were a number of players out there who were starting a game for the first time this season, because they needed to get a game under their belts.”

One of those players making his first start in a Stoke shirt was striker Cameron Jerome. The former Birmingham City player had given the visitors a lead just after half-time, smashing the ball into the roof of Dynamo’s net after neatly controlling Ryan Shotton’s low cross.

Stoke tried to hold on against a Dynamo Kiev side that had pressed the Potters for most of the game and it was no surprise that the Ukrainian side managed to equalize.

Unfortunately for Pulis’ men the equalizer came 3 minutes into injury time when Vukojevic latched onto Andriy Yarmolenko’s cross to break Stoke hearts.

Pulis however remained confident after the game and only had one minor criticism of his men’s performance on the night.

“If there is one slight criticism of our performance though, it is the fact that we need to be a little better in possession of the ball. We work so hard off the ball but there were times when we could have retained possession better.

“The fans will have seen what a great performance this was in the toughest of circumstances and hopefully they will now really get behind us as they always do, because if we can do well in our home matches then we have got a great chance of going further in the competition.”