FERNANDO Torres proved a point to Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho by firing the Blues into the Capital One Cup fourth round.
Torres had to settle for a place on the bench in Saturday’s win over Fulham but he was given a starting berth tonight and starred with a goal and an assist to see of Swindon Town.
It was a much-changed Chelsea side but one that was still worth close to £200m which trotted out at the County Ground to take on the League One Robins.
Mark Schwarzer took his place in the Blues goal and became the club’s oldest ever debutant as he approaches his 41st birthday – one of 10 changes made by the Special One.
Marco Van Ginkel though saw a rare outing cut short through injury as he twisted and fell awkwardly, Ramires coming on to fill the void left by his early departure.
It was a small blot on an otherwise unblemished first-half copybook for Mourinho’s side as they made their dominance count.
Substitute Ramires slid in Mata for a strike on goal. Wes Foderingham did well to beat out the effort but Torres was waiting to pounce for the opener.
Torres was involved again as the Blues made it two before the break, turning brilliantly and setting up Ramires for his first goal this season.
The half-time interval saw Mourinho forced into one change as John Terry replaced Ramires, with the Brazilian having suffered a slight knock.
Swindon made a good start to the second period and had the ball in the back of the net five minutes after the restart, however Dany N'Guessan was correctly flagged offside.
Willian blazed high and wide when he really should have made it three after Foderingham had saved from Torres.
It remained at two though and that was good enough to send Chelsea marching on into the next stage, with their Spanish number nine giving his boss plenty to think about ahead of the weekend trip to Tottenham.
BLUES: Schwarzer; Azpilicueta, Luiz, Cahill, Bertrand, Essien, Van Ginkel (Ramires, 10 (Terry, 45)), De Bruyne (Ba, 77), Mata, Willian, Torres.
Subs (not used): Blackman, Baker, Schurrle, Eto’o.
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