With Torres arriving at Chelsea supposedly suffering from a pre-existing condition, the sudden and drastic increase in the number of games he had to play each season put a huge amount of extra stress on his already ailing body. Only in his first season at Liverpool had he played over 40 games a season. With the club failing to qualify for the Champions League in his last two years at the club, his appearance numbers steadily declined from 46 in 07/08 to 32 in his final full season in 09/10. Chelsea had at that point firmly entrenched themselves among the Champions League establishment and frequently challenged into the latter stages of the domestic cup competitions in addition to their league responsibilities. In his first full season in London, Torres played 49 matches for the club, three more than his highest total at Liverpool when he was five years younger and the most he had played in any season since 04/05 with Atletico Madrid. The subsequent season saw that number hugely increase once again, with the club going out of the group stages of the Champions League before going on to win the Europa League, where Torres was their only eligible striker. 2012/13 was a 64 game season for Torres, playing 16 games in Europe in addition to missing only two Premier League games. Even the fittest player would struggle to get through a season that intensive and it seemed a miracle that Torres, already in physical decline, survived it at all.
28-year old English writer with a borderline obsessive passion for films, videogames, Chelsea FC, incomprehensible words and indefensible puns. Follow me on Twitter if you like infrequent outbursts of absolute drivel.
