Chelsea's Fernando Torres: We clearly should have been given two penalties in draw against Stoke

Spain international was a surprise inclusion for the Premier League runner-ups after suffering from a head-injury playing for his nation, but put in a good performance

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Following Chelsea’s 0-0 draw at Stoke City, Fernando Torres has admitted his side are disappointed at the result, however he is adamant they should have had two penalties.
In what was a fairly tame match, it was going to take either something special, or a mistake to break the deadlock with Stoke showing little attacking threat and Chelsea unable to find a way past Asmir Begovic in the hosts’ net.
Torres was involved in two potential penalty shouts, the first when he fell to the floor under pressure from Jonathan Woodgate, and the second when he received a kick by Robert Huth right on the edge of the box, however, the Spain international doesn’t want to use that as an excuse.
Speaking after the match to SkySports, Torres said: “It was a disappointing result because we had some chances to score and two very clear penalty situations, one of them I was involved with.
“I think it was very clear, but at the end of the game, 90 minutes wasn’t enough to score, so it’s not an excuse, but I think we did enough to win.
“We missed those two points, but it is the first game of the season and one point is not a great result. But it is a difficult stadium to play in and a difficult team to play against, so we will have to keep going.”
Regardless of the result, Torres appears in a good frame of mind and believes the team feel confident ahead of the season, pointing out that although the draw wasn’t what they wanted to leave with, there are still 37 matches to go.
He continued:  “I think we showed we are in good form, all of us. It is not easy to play against Stoke and we have given great effort.
“It is only the first match of many we have to play, hopefully with better results and we must start thinking about the next game. We are happy with the performance, but not the result.”
After a fairly poor half-season with Chelsea last year, the Spain international insists he feels good, something that would seem to be backed up by his performance, having been named Chelsea’s Man of the Match.
He went on: “I am feeling very fresh, with pace and sharpness, so I'm happy with that, but not the nil-nil, as strikers want to score all the time. I would like to score in every game, but that is not possible.
“Following the pre-season, I am only 27 so I have not forgotten how to play, score or play well. Last season was a season to forget for me.
“A lot of bad things happened in that season, but that is in the past and now I want to focus on this season which I am sure will be very good for Chelsea and myself.”
The visitors were very flat in the first half, offering very little going forward despite having far more possession, but John Terry was quick to praise Stoke’s mentality.
He said: “I thought, fair play to them, they set out very well and made their intentions quite clear from the first minute.
“We soaked it up a little bit and the second half was a lot better.”
Terry’s new manager, Andre Villas-Boas, has targeted the Premier League title as the minimum he expects this season, and the Blues’ captain believes there is no reason why they can’t win the league.
He concluded: “We believe. Our intention last year was to win it and we pushed Manchester United all the way.
“Again, they’ve gone out and they have strengthened their squad but we firmly believe what we have in the dressing room is more than adequate to go on and win the league.”