Cech backs Torres to recover

Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech is convinced Fernando Torres' jaw-dropping miss against Manchester United will not prove a fatal setback in the striker's bid to shake off his dreadful run in front of goal.

The £50million man did finally manage to net the second goal of his 24-match Blues career with a well-taken effort at the start of the second half but he should have had a hat-trick and produced one of the worst open-goal howlers in Premier League history after brilliantly rounding David De Gea in Chelsea's 3-1 defeat.

Torres sunk to the turf in despair as United supporters taunted the beleaguered forward and the striker looked just as distraught at the final whistle, but goalkeeper Cech said: "This is one thing in football that happens and what he can remember is he played really well and scored a great goal. I can see every time the guy is improving."

Cech continued: "At Stoke, he had a brilliant match and was unlucky not to score.

"The last match, he created both goals against Bayer Leverkusen and against United he created a huge chance for Ramires in the first half, which if he'd left for Daniel Sturridge, it would have been a simple tap-in.

"He also scored a great goal and then got himself another opportunity and, unfortunately, I don't know what happened. But I am not worried about it, he will score goals."

"Everybody is counting goals with strikers and it is always like that.

"But if you see Dimitar Berbatov, for example, he got into United not only because he can score goals but because he also created 30 for Tottenham every season.

"That's why they brought him to United and Torres is doing the same. He scores goals and can create them.

"Ideally, you want your striker to score but if Torres creates two goals every game then who cares?"