TORRES: PRIMED FOR PREMIER ACTION

Fernando Torres is hoping he gets the
nod to start against Hull City at Stamford
Bridge on Sunday after a hard week of
training.
Torres, who arrived back to pre-season
late following Confederations Cup duty,
has been playing catch-up with his team-
mates, but having trained at Cobham this
week rather than joining Spain's squad
for their friendly in Ecuador, believes he is
now at a level of sharpness to warrant
inclusion for the first game of the Premier
League season.
'Obviously I am maybe not at the same
level as some of the other guys having
not been training even for a month yet,
but it's been a positive week training with
the reserve guys, so I feel ready to play,'
he said.
Last time Torres faced Hull he was a
Liverpool player, netting a hat-trick
against the Tigers at Anfield in a 6-1 win
back in 2009.
'It was a long time ago,' he smiled. 'I
remember the hat-trick. The first one was
a cross from Albert Riera, I pulled it with
my right leg and shot with the left, the
second was from a pass from Yossi
Benayoun, and the third was also the left
foot, so I think it was a left-footed hat-
trick, which are not very common!
'This time I think it will be harder. Always
the first game of the season is a tricky
game, all the teams want to give a good
image of themselves and put in a
performance, so it will probably be really
good for the fans to watch. Hull will want
to win and be positive, but they won't
want to go crazy and be exposed and
concede goals, so we will need to show
character from the first minute, but we
know the fans will be behind us with Jose
Mourinho back and we can think
positively.'
Mourinho has already said he expects a
tough game from Steve Bruce's side this
afternoon, but a win would be the perfect
start heading into what is an already busy
period of a season in which Torres hopes
to lift further silverware.
'We will see what happens,' said the 29-
year-old. 'Three top teams in the Premier
League have changed managers and I
think it will be even more difficult for all of
us, because you need a bit of time to
adapt. I think we have the same chances,
and to start well will be key.
'It's one of the main targets and we will
see what happens, but we have to go
game by game and not think nine months
ahead of ourselves.'

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