Heading back: Fernando Torres is close to a return following a knee ligament injury
Torres was expected to be sidelined for at least a month after sustaining a knee ligament injury during the 3-1 win against Manchester United on January 19 but he is already back in training.The Spaniard is unlikely to be match fit in time to start against Newcastle at home on Saturday but he should be 100 per cent just as Chelsea’s fixture list becomes more intense.
Mourinho’s men face West Brom away next Tuesday night, before taking on Manchester City in the FA Cup fifth round four days later. Significantly, Torres will be available for the last-16 Champions League tie against Turkish side Galatasaray, the first leg of which is in Istanbul on February 26.
Torres’s absence has left Demba Ba as the only back-up to Samuel Eto’o but the Senagalese will be third-choice striker once again when the Spaniard is fit to return to the starting line-up.
Ba hasn’t started a match for Chelsea since scoring in the 1-0 win over Steaua Bucharest two months ago and he saw a potential January window move to Trabzonspor collapse because of Torres’s injury.
He has made just three substitute appearances in Torres’s absence, with Eto’o named in the starting XI for the last four games, and now first-team opportunities are going to be even harder to come by.
Meanwhile, new Chelsea signing Mohamed Salah admits he faces a tough challenge to get into the side following his £11million move from Basle last month.
Salah, who was awarded Switzerland’s Player of the Year award just before completing the switch to Stamford Bridge, is yet to make his debut for his new club after he remained on the substitutes’ bench in the 1-0 win at Manchester City.
Chelsea are in their best run of form of the season, following a 10-game unbeaten run, and the trio of Eden Hazard, Oscar and Willian are first choice to play behind the striker in Mourinho’s preferred 4-2-3-1 formation. Egypt international Salah is aware he may have to wait until next season to make an impact at Stamford Bridge and said: “Playing in Switzerland and for Basle is not like Chelsea, it’s more different.
“I hope I can play better here, do more than I did at Basle and I do a good career for me.
“He [Mourinho] said to me, ‘We need you, you’re a very good player and still young. Next year you will play more and will get better and better’.
“Now I am just concentrating on the pitch. It is not easy if you come to Chelsea and want to play, it’s not easy for anyone.
“I will concentrate, work hard, do my work and we’ll see.
“For everybody in Egypt this is a dream. To see one player playing in Chelsea, Manchester or Madrid, it’s not easy for Egypt people [to do that].”
The 21-year-old Salah (left) has already earned one winners’ medal in his career after helping Basle claim the Swiss Championship last season and he is hoping for more silverware following his move to Chelsea.
He added: “I hope we can win the Premier League and the Champions League. It is not easy but this is a very good team and I hope we can win the League 100 per cent.
“To play in this League is fantastic and it is my dream.
“As well as [playing in England’s top division], I am also playing for one of the biggest teams.”
Chelsea are just two points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal following their stunning 1-0 victory over Manchester City on Monday night but Brazil star David Luiz insists no one at the club is getting carried away by that success.
He said: “It [the win at the Etihad Stadium] was just one more game, just three points. We have to improve every day if we are to win the title.
“We will keep working hard and our feet on the floor. We work hard to win every game, that’s it.”
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