Substitute Fernando Torres scores with first touch as Blues claim Asia Trophy

The Blues emerge from their pre-season tournament victorious with a comfortable victory over Alex McLeish's men including a morale-boosting strike for the £50 million man

Chelsea continued their pre-season preparations with victory over Aston Villa in the final of the Asia Trophy in Hong Kong courtesy of a goal in each half from Josh McEachran and Fernando Torres.

The Blues fielded a strong line-up with Nicolas Anelka, Daniel Sturridge and Florent Malouda up front and McEachran handed an attacking role in midfield while Villa chose to leave Darren Bent on the bench, with Nathan Delfouneso and Gabriel Agbonlahor the two strikers.

It took Andre Villas-Boas’ men just 35 seconds to open the scoring, goalkeeper Shay Given doing superbly well to block twice from Anelka and then Malouda but powerless to preventMcEachran from slotting home the loose ball.

After a strong start, Villa gradually came back into the game with Ireland firing over after good work from Agbonlahor before Branislav Ivanovic managed to block a dangerous cross from Delfouneso.

Yet with just 15 minutes on the clock, Chelsea thought they had doubled their lead. Anelka rounding Given and slotting into an empty net, only to be denied by the offside flag.

Ten minutes later and again the assistant referee was called into action, once again signalling for offside after John Obi Mikel had poked home after Villa failed to clear a Lampard free-kick, another respite for Alex McLeish’s men.

The Scot opted to make just one change on the break replacing Marc Albrighton with Emile Heskey and Villa began the second half on the attack with Agbonlahor unable to control in front of Cech before Stiliyan Petrov dragged a volley agonisingly wide after Chelsea failed to clear a corner properly.

Yet the Blues were still a threat and from a Malouda corner were inches away from a second, with captain John Terry denied by Fabian Delph who hacked his header clear from his own goal line.

Changes swiftly followed on the hour mark with Torres, Didier Drogba and Patrick van Aanholt arriving and it was the Spaniard who grabbed the Blues’ second of the day with his first touch of the match.

Malouda was the creator, shooting from distance, with Torres just getting enough of a touch on the ball to divert it past Given to double the score.
The goal all but finished off Villa, who again had Given to thank as the Republic of Ireland international kept the score down with good saves from Torres and Lampard and even the introduction of Darren Bent from the bench could do little to inspire Villa as Chelsea closed out the game comfortably.

Source: goal.com