Chelsea made it 24 games unbeaten at home in the Champions League following this hard fought 2-0 success over Bayer Leverkusen. Much has been made of Fernando Torres's goal drought since his £50m move from Liverpool and at Stamford Bridge the Spaniard may again have failed to find the back of the net but he did provide the two assists for Chelsea to begin their Group E Champions League campaign with three points.
The games started in dramatic style with both teams having a goal disallowed in the first four minutes, but for Leverkusen the omens were never good considering their form against English opposition in this competition.
This defeat was their seventh on the bounce against an English club on their first appearance in the Champions League for seven years.
Torres and Daniel Sturridge had efforts well-saved even though the Germans were more dangerous after the break but Petr Cech stopped former Chelsea player Michael Ballack's close-range shot and it was left to defender David Luiz to settle the hosts nerves.
A patient build-up ended with Torres setting up the Brazilian for a superb finish past Bernd Leno.
This settled the Blues down who now looked the more likely to score even though they had to wait until injury time to double their advantage, and again Torres was the provider.
The Spaniard broke clear into the penalty area and unselfishly passed square for Juan Mata to side-foot home.
Referee: Stéphane Lannoy (FRA)
Venue: Stamford Bridge
Attendance: 33,820
Chelsea scorers: Luiz 67, Mata 90 Leverkusen scorers:
TRIBAL ASKS: Is it too extreme to suggest that if Torres concentrates on being a provider his goalscoring touch may return?
Yellow cards: Torres (CHE), Luiz (CHE), Castro (BLEV), Bender (BLEV), Derdiyok (BLEV)
