Chelsea’s Juan Mata sings Fernando Torres’ praises

Juan Mata has heaped praise on Fernando Torres after the Chelsea striker netted his fifth goal in three games this week.

The Spain international scored the Blues’ second in a 3-1 Club World Cup win over Monterrey in Yokohama after two-goal hauls against Nordsjaelland and Sunderland.

Torres has struggled to find any sort of consistent goal-scoring form since swapping Liverpool for Stamford Bridge in January 2011.

But Mata insists he always felt his international team-mate was close to recapturing his best form and says the Chelsea team “have a lot of confidence” in the forward.

“This is what I saw from him in training all those weeks and months, so I knew it would happen,” Mata said.

“And when I said I could see it coming, that was true. Fernando was, is and will be always an important player.

“He is a very good striker for us. Now you can see he is fully fit and we have a lot of confidence in him.”

Rafael Benitez’s Chelsea take on Brazilian side Corinthians in Sunday’s Club World Cup final.