Torres Must fight for his place in Chelsea

Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas threw down the gauntlet to Fernando Torres to regain his place in the Blues team after being benched in the 2-1 victory over Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.The £50 million record signing watched on as goals from John Terry and Daniel Sturridge guided the Blues to their third win a row, and their seventh straight victory on Wearside. The Portuguese told reporters: “I don’t feel brave to have taken Fernando out of the team. This situation has nothing to do with that. "I have four wonderful strikers and all of them compete for the four positions. All offer different kinds of things and talent and today the choice fell to Anelka. There is nothing special about it. “Fernando offers the same and has been doing magnificently well as well for the last three games. Nico [Anelka] has shown what he can do with the minutes he has been having in for the last three games and today we decided to go with him. Anelka has been with us over the international break and we decided that Nicolas Anelka was the one. “To get back into the first team he just has to compete. It is nothing special. Everybody has to compete for their place and he has to complete just like all the other players.” Villas-Boas was happy with his side’s performance as the cruised to victory over a lacklustre Sunderland side and feels the scoreline didn’t do his team justice. He said: “The game went very well for us in terms of what we want to achieve. Not that we haven’t tried to do it before but it just didn’t happen in the last three games. Fortunately today we were able to do the passing game that relates more to the way we train. “We played very well and I am very happy with the display. The 2-1 is avoidable and brought an edge ton the last few minutes but we can only say that Chelsea deserved to win. We were very consistent. We would have gone into the dressing room at half-time with a better result but we managed to score after the break to take the points home. "It's normal to slow down a bit in the second half, that's probably why we slowed a little but also because we were two goals up. We could have been further ahead at the break, we fell a bit short but managed to score early in the second half to help us to three important points. "Tiredness can play a part for us in international week as we have lots of players coming back with two games in their legs. Coming back for international week is always difficult.” The Blues now return to Champions League action in midweek for the first time since being knocked out in the quarter-final stage by Manchester United last season. Villas-Boas knows what is required of him by owner Roman Abramovich and he is fully intent on becoming the first Chelsea manager to win the prestigious competition. "I have to focus on what the owner has told me and one of his obsessions is to play well and that's what we have to do and we have to add trophies to that. There's nothing new in that. "The European trophy is a dream to everyone but it's the most difficult trophy to win because of the level of the competition. It will be a massive challenge again and we have two days to rest up. Bayer have an extra day to rest but we have to focus on taking the three points. It's step by step,” he said. The Blues boss also revealed his delight with Frank Lampard after the veteran midfielder bounced back from a disappointing international break with a sparkling display at the Stadium of Light. "He's competing for a place for England and he was picked for their second game. He played well, as did the rest of the team. Defining club performances will take him to more international games, that's for sure. You know his level and you know he can perform."