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Torres will benefit from being dropped - Villas-Boas

Fernando Torres was dropped for Chelsea's trip to Sunderland © Getty Images

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Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas is hoping he will reap the benefits from his decision to drop Fernando Torres.

The Blues' £50m January signing has scored just one goal since his arrival from Liverpool in January, prompting Villas-Boas to drop the Spaniard to the bench in favour of Daniel Sturridge.

Sturridge justified his inclusion with a crucial goal in Chelsea's 2-1 win over Sunderland on Saturday, and while Villas-Boas refused to confirm whether Torres would be reinstated to the starting XI for Chelsea's Champions League opener against Bayer Leverkusen at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday, he revealed he expected the striker to benefit from his time on the bench.

"Any player that is not part of the squad, or not part of the selected players is not happy," Villas-Boas said. "I am glad that they are not happy because it means that maybe you can stimulate them to go one step further.

"Or maybe you can motivate them a little bit more and when they come back to being selected or to starting in the first XI they can still perform."

Villas-Boas has confirmed Chelsea are looking into an interview by Torres, who claimed Chelsea were being hindered by a slow midfield. Torres has since claimed his words were inaccurately translated from Spanish and Villas-Boas was keen to play down the incident.

"We are going in-depth to regain the tape of that interview," Villas-Boas said. "We'll see if things play exactly as they are in that interview. We want to go in-depth a bit more. Anyhow, it's one player's perspective. I don't think it's a perspective that the manager shares. I don't have to share my players' ideas sometimes."

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