£50m Torres on the money again

The £50m man has scored four goals in his last four games and after a performance that showed glimpses of the striker at his awesome best, Torres may have put the torrid start he made to his Chelsea career behind him at last.

The Spaniard could easily have doubled his Chelsea tally on a night when Raul Meireles scored his first goal for the club and Branislav Ivanovic and substitute Salomon Kalou also found the net.

Chelsea will face the same opponents in less than two weeks and a victory will almost certainly bring with it qualification for the knockout stages with two games to spare.

The threatened boycott of this game by Chelsea supporters angry at ticket prices did not materialise -- Stamford Bridge was packed almost to capacity for a European match. It quickly became clear the 38,518 crowd would get value for money, despite the six changes that saw John Terry and Juan Mata rested.

Torres started slowly, somehow poking Nicolas Anelka’s seventh-minute chip forward against the post. However, Chelsea were in front a minute later, when Meireles was given an age to line up a shot from 25 yards which found the bottom corner.

Torres did not have to wait long to make amends for his miss, either, Frank Lampard drifting into space and threading in the Spaniard, who side-footed home.

Chelsea were also breaking with pace and Khaleem Hyland was booked after resorting to a desperate lunge to halt the marauding Florent Malouda, who spent the entire night trying to back up his claim this week that he was worth a new contract.

After David Luiz, the Chelsea centre-back, was cautioned for a typically over-enthusiastic tackle on Jelle Vossen, Malouda should have made it 3-0 midway through the half, but he side-footed Torres’ cutback wide with his weaker right foot.

Torres was now a constant menace and he duly bagged his first double for Chelsea in the 27th minute when he got in front of his marker to glance Meireles’ cross beyond Laszlo Koteles in the Genk goal.

Lampard missed a glorious chance from Torres’ cross as Chelsea put together their best football of the half, with Anelka also drilling wide.

The fourth goal duly arrived three minutes before the break, Ivanovic heading Malouda’s free-kick from the right in after a towering leap.

The only downside from Chelsea’s dominance was Genk’s star, Kevin De Bruyne, being denied the chance to showcase the talent that has long seen him linked with a move to Chelsea.

He showed some neat touches in the second half as the home side eased off, withdrawing Ashley Cole during the interval, Lampard with 20 minutes remaining, and Jose Bosingwa late on.

Otherwise, Chelsea might easily have added to their tally, with Torres failing to connect properly with Luiz’s lofted ball, Malouda’s run and shot saved and then Genk substitute Fabian Camus getting away with knocking Lampard over in the box.

Bosingwa, Meireles and Salomon Kalou all sent long-range drives too close to Koteles before the latter made it 5-0 with 18 minutes left.

It should have been Torres’ hat-trick, but Koteles saved from point-blank range, with Kalou coolly converting the rebound.

Malouda headed over late on as he failed to cap his fine performance with a goal, but not much else was missing for Chelsea.