• Roberto Di Matteo experimented with pair against Blackburn
• Drogba and Torres are yet to score while playing together

Roberto Di Matteo has revealed he had the Champions League final on Saturday in mind when he paired Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres in Chelsea’s win over Blackburn Rovers.

Drogba and Torres both came off the bench in Chelsea’s last Premier League game of the season on Sunday, linking up for the final 21 minutes of the 2-1 victory at Stamford Bridge. Di Matteo, the caretaker manager, has not started the strikers in tandem since taking charge just over two months ago but confirmed he had been looking at potential options for the showdown with Bayern Munich this weekend during the 2-1 win over relegated Rovers.

“I tried a few things to just have a look and see how it could work out,” he said. “It’s always difficult because obviously it’s going to be a different opposition. But I’ve been trying to figure out a few things.”

Drogba and Torres being in the same XI would have been unthinkable before Chelsea’s Champions League semi-final triumph against Barcelona. The received wisdom is that they do not work as a duo, with neither having found the net in five starts together or on the 19 other occasions they have been on the pitch at the same time.

It is still unlikely Di Matteo would gamble on that changing in what is the most high‑profile game of his managerial career, but with four players suspended and three potential injuries for the final at the Allianz Arena on Saturday, it is not impossible.

Drogba appears certain to start what is looking increasingly like his farewell match for Chelsea, with Juan Mata and Salomon Kalou in support, leaving a vacancy for one of Frank Lampard, Florent Malouda, Daniel Sturridge or Torres.

Lampard may well be earmarked for a holding role alongside Mikel John Obi, Malouda is sweating on a hamstring injury picked up on Sunday, while Sturridge has been out of sorts since the turn of the year. Torres, who has an impressive 18 assists this season, could therefore be a contender to play on the right side of attack, presuming Di Matteo does not also suddenly abandon the 4-2-3-1 formation that has served him so well since his appointment.

The Italian’s selection will also depend on the availability of the injured centre-backs David Luiz and Gary Cahill, with the captain, John Terry, and Branislav Ivanovic both suspended. Terry signed off for the season on Sunday by heading in his seventh goal of the campaign, one shy of his personal record.

“I am delighted with seven,” he said. “I rose up and it was a decent header, I was delighted with it, and I was pleased with the performance as a whole.”

Terry, who was heavily criticised for his performance in the 4-1 thrashing at Liverpool last Tuesday, added: “It’s always good to end the league season with a win, especially bouncing back after Liverpool in the week as well. Now we go into a huge week and we can start concentrating on Munich.

“Robbie has rested players, hopefully we will have everyone fit, and those of us that are suspended have been playing games and we still have a big part to play this week in training and preparation.”

• José Bosingwa may be rested for trip to Merseyside
• Chelsea still chasing a top-four finish

Roberto Di Matteo is expected to hand Fernando Torres a place in the Chelsea starting lineup against Liverpool on Tuesday night, giving the striker his first action at Anfield since his British record £50m move to London 15 months ago, as his side attempt to maintain their faint hopes of a top‑four finish.

The FA Cup winners will travel to Merseyside for a swift rematch against the team they defeated at Wembley needing to win to stand any chance of being in contention for a top‑four spot when they host Blackburn Rovers in their final game on Sunday. Had Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United won on Sunday then Chelsea would already be contemplating a sixth-place finish, their lowest in a decade. Yet the failure of the three sides immediately above them in the table to emerge victorious from the penultimate round of matches means Di Matteo’s team can still strictly finish as high as third, above Arsenal.

That scenario remains unlikely but the team selection at Anfield will reflect such a possibility even with the Champions League final against Bayern Munich to come this month. The interim first-team coach indicated at the weekend that his selection would “depend on Sunday’s results” and, while the likes of Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole and Juan Mata are all likely to sit out the match, the coach will still pick a strong side that includes experience.

Torres, an unused substitute at Wembley whose three meetings with his former club since moving south have been lost at Stamford Bridge, should start with Ryan Bertrand drafted in at left-back, the former Liverpool midfielder Raul Meireles coming in for Lampard and Michael Essien replacing Mikel John Obi at his side. Daniel Sturridge and Florent Malouda will also hope for some involvement.

The game will come too soon for both David Luiz and Gary Cahill, who continue their rehabilitation from hamstring injuries which threaten their chances of playing in the European Cup final in Munich, and José Bosingwa, a potential emergency centre-half in Munich, may be rested at Anfield with either Paulo Ferreira or Sam Hutchinson, who has not started a game since September 2009, utilised at right‑back.

The fixture could yet prove to be Di Matteo’s penultimate Premier League match in charge, with the Italian still unsure where his future will lie beyond the end of the season as Roman Abramovich contemplates a permanent successor for André Villas-Boas. Pep Guardiola, the oligarch’s first choice, has reiterated that he intends to take a sabbatical after leaving Barcelona, thus ruling him out of contention, and support gathers within the Chelsea set-up for Di Matteo to be offered the role on a full-time basis.

The playing staff, buoyed by securing silverware at the weekend, continue to praise the stand-in’s impact. “Robbie knows how to manage this team,” said Mikel. “He is very similar to the way (Guus) Hiddink and (Jose) Mourinho did the job. He came in and noticed where the problem is, and put it right. If you are not going to be involved he puts his arm around you and tells you he believes in you and that, in the next game, you are going to be involved. I think his man-management has been fantastic. All the players, even the big players, like what he is doing and, hopefully, the club will make the right decision.”

Liverpool’s goalkeeper says he is focused on thwarting the rehabilitation of Chelsea’s £50m investment in the FA Cup final

It is 16 months since José Reina’s next-door neighbour moved to London but there is no prospect of the pair losing touch. They still speak regularly, as close friends who have travelled a similar path do, and have confided in each other throughout the hardest periods of their professional lives in England. So when the Liverpool goalkeeper voices concerns, Roman Abramovich should listen. It is his £50m investment, and Reina’s former neighbour, who is the focus of them after all.

This season has been the poorest of Reina’s seven in the Premier League but as he heads into today’s FA Cup final and the prospect of a domestic cup double and redemption against Chelsea it is without the condemnation, at times ridicule, that has accompanied Fernando Torres to Wembley. For that, Reina credits the backing of his Liverpool team-mates and manager Kenny Dalglish. He doubts whether a support network ever existed for Britain’s most expensive footballer until the third manager of Torres’s Chelsea career, Roberto Di Matteo, began to demonstrate faith.

“The difference between Fernando and myself is that I have had the confidence of the people at my club all the time. I don’t think that has been the case for Fernando at Chelsea,” explains Reina. “It is much easier to get over your mistakes when you know you have the confidence of your manager and your team-mates. With [André] Villas-Boas especially, I don’t think Fernando felt that confidence.”

Ominously for Liverpool, and that applies whether their former striker starts on the pitch or on the bench this evening, they have started to recognise Torres once more. The late goal in Barcelona that secured Chelsea’s place in the Champions League final preceded the first hat-trick of the Spaniard’s spell in blue five days later against Queens Park Rangers. Whatever the implications for the FA Cup final, Reina is simply pleased for a friend. Arguably for his own counselling skills too.

“I’m happy for him because he has been showing great form lately and has been more involved in their games,” he says. “Physically he looks sharper. I’m glad. It’s good for the national team and good for him. Maybe not so good for us on Saturday but I wish him to be at that level all the time.

“We are friends and we speak regularly. I told him [while Torres was struggling] that he was going to be back. People, and the press in this country especially, were killing him but he has been carrying that weight all his life. He was captain of Atlético Madrid when he was 19 and that gave him a lot of experience. We knew Fernando at Liverpool, we know Fernando, and Fernando is a great player. He will always be a great player.”

But a stellar talent should adapt to new surroundings quicker than Torres at Chelsea. Reina counters that the established order at Stamford Bridge has also been a factor in the striker’s problems and is bemused at why Chelsea, having spent a British record sum to entice the 28-year-old from his disillusionment at Anfield, have not developed a team around him.

“When you move there is always a question mark,” he explains. “We knew how good he was here but he needed to change city, team-mates and the mentality of the team. That is a hell of a change. He had to get used to that but also keep delivering and the expectations when a team has spent £50m on a player are also very high. The pressure was there but I don’t think it was only down to Fernando. I don’t think Chelsea as a club delivered for him.

“We built a team for Fernando here at Liverpool. Along with Stevie [Gerrard], Fernando was our star player. We had no problems admitting that. He deserved that and he earned that credit. I’m not sure it’s like that at Chelsea. Fernando has always performed at his best when he has been at the heart of the team. I’m not saying Chelsea have to do that because Fernando can perform for any club in the world, but it is easier when you have that situation.”

Reina’s concerns this season extend beyond Torres’s predicament. There has been an aura around the Liverpool goalkeeper since he arrived from Villarreal for £6m in 2005, a consistently high class presence that helped deliver the club’s last FA Cup in the 2006 penalty shoot-out against West Ham United. That has slipped this term. Glaring errors such as allowing Sergio Agüero’s shot to pass under his body at Manchester City in January remain the exception but the number of crucial, match-defining saves has waned.

Asked to rate his own performances, he states: “Bad.” He adds: “I don’t think my season has been good at all. It has been below my standards but I am working hard and trying to improve on a daily basis. I know I haven’t been great this season but first of all I want to help the team in the final on Saturday and then get back to my best next season.”

Managerial upheaval at Liverpool has brought with it four different goalkeeping coaches over the past three seasons. Reina does not seek excuses. “They have all been great,” he insists. “I have no problem with any goalkeeping coach. That is not the issue. It is all about my own form and the way I play. You cannot be at the top of your game all the time, although you try. You have ups and downs and certainly we as a team haven’t been as consistent as we should have been. I don’t know. I had six really good years before this one and people got used to that level from me but sometimes you have a dip in form and you have to accept that.”

Not even a repeat of his defining contribution to Liverpool’s last FA Cup triumph would improve Reina’s self-assessment of a campaign divided between cup success and league failure. “Unfortunately there have been a number of mistakes by me this season,” he says. “Fortunately I am able to get over them easily. That’s the way it has to be. You have to be strong and prepare properly. But they won’t be forgotten by me. If I am man of the match on Saturday that will not change anything. It is a one-off game, a final and I will try to help my team-mates and it is up to all of us to deliver. But if I play badly and the team wins, I would take that all day long.”

A homecoming parade is planned for Sunday should Dalglish’s team add the FA Cup to the Carling Cup and Reina, the all-singing cheerleader of Spain’s triumphant returns from the 2010 World Cup and 2008 European Championship, would finally have the opportunity to showcase his dubious talents on Merseyside. “Let’s win it first and then we can talk about other things,” pleads Reina, who admits feeling a debt of gratitude to Brad Jones for helping Liverpool defeat Everton in the semi-final while he completed a three-match suspension. “We want to win and if I am needed, I will do it. But let’s win it first.”

For now Reina’s thoughts are focused on Chelsea and thwarting the rehabilitation of Torres if necessary. He would not hesitate if, like Víctor Valdés in the Camp Nou last week, he is confronted by his compatriot in the dying seconds of a showpiece event.

“I would try to stop him,” he smiles. “Fernando is a superb player and he’s got everything – tricks, pace – and you have to be ready for everything, although I am sure my defenders would not let that situation happen.”

Reina is prepared for all eventualities, including having Torres for a neighbour once again. In Liverpool of course. “I would like to play with Fernando every day of my life,” says the Liverpool No1. “We are close friends. Our families are close. We shared a lot of things in those three years and we know each other very well.

“He will be a friend forever. He was very grateful to Liverpool and to the Liverpool supporters. I have spoken to many former players and when they took the decision to leave Liverpool, most of them have ended up regretting it. Obviously when Fernando was struggling he probably missed Liverpool. I’m not saying he made a good or a bad decision, it’s up to him, but he was an icon and an idol here.”

• Liverpool goalkeeper points finger at André Villas-Boas
• ‘I don’t think Chelsea as a club have delivered for him’

José Reina, the Liverpool goalkeeper, has accused Liverpool’s FA Cup final opponents Chelsea of mishandling Fernando Torres since his £50m move from Anfield and suggested that the former manager André Villas-Boas, egos and playing style are all responsible for the striker’s problems at Stamford Bridge.

Torres has recently shown signs of the form that convinced Chelsea to pay a British record transfer fee for the Spain international in January 2011. The striker has scored four goals in his last three appearances for Roberto Di Matteo’s team including the equaliser that secured the club’s passage into the Champions League final at the expense of Barcelona.

However, Reina, who remains close friends with his former Liverpool team-mate, believes that Chelsea would have received a greater return than just 12 goals in 64 appearances from Torres had they shown faith in his talent from the outset.

“I don’t think Chelsea as a club delivered for him,” the Spain international says. “When you move there is always a question mark. We knew how good he was here but he needed to change city, team-mates and the mentality of the team. That is a hell of a change. He had to get used to that but also keep delivering and the expectations when a team has spent £50m on a player are also very high. The pressure was there but I don’t think it was only down to Fernando.

“We built a team for Fernando here at Liverpool. Along with Stevie [Gerrard], Fernando was our star player. We had no problems admitting that. He deserved that and he earned that credit. I’m not sure it’s like that at Chelsea.

“Fernando has always performed at his best when he has been at the heart of the team. I’m not saying Chelsea have to do that because Fernando can perform for any club in the world, but it is easier when you have that situation.”

Ahead of Saturday’s Wembley showpiece Reina admits being disappointed with his own form at Liverpool this season but, in contrast to Torres at Chelsea, claims he has not been allowed to linger over mistakes.

“The difference between Fernando and myself is that I have had the confidence of the people at my club all the time. I don’t think that has been the case for Fernando at Chelsea,” he adds.

“It is much easier to get over your mistakes when you know you have the confidence of your manager and your team-mates. With Villas-Boas especially, I don’t think Fernando felt that confidence.”

• ‘I’ve had one very difficult year here’, says Spaniard
• ‘I’m on form with important games still to come’

Fernando Torres celebrated a first hat-trick for Chelsea since his British record £50m move from Liverpool 15 months ago by claiming this could prove “the first of many” for the club as the European Cup finalists ran riot with a 6-1 victory against Queens Park Rangers.

Chelsea’s biggest win in this derby hoisted Roberto Di Matteo’s team to within reach of the top four, with Newcastle United to visit on Wednesday night, and maintained the breathless momentum generated by the team over recent weeks. Torres’s treble was his first since September 2009, doubling his league tally for the season in the process, to suggest a timely return to form ahead of next weekend’s FA Cup final against his former club.

“It was an important result and I’m happy with the hat-trick,” said Torres, who had also scored his side’s equaliser in stoppage time at Barcelona. “My last hat-trick was a long time ago but hopefully it will be the first of many. Things are getting better. From my first day in English football, everything was really good and looking easy. I was scoring almost every day and things were very good. I have had one very difficult year here, going through a very difficult period of time where things were not right.

“The important thing for me is being in the best form of the season with more important games to come. It is strange because I was feeling very good [in recent weeks], with fitness and feeling sharp, but I couldn’t score. So now, to be honest, I’m not playing as well as before but I’m scoring goals. But when you work hard – it’s the only thing you can do – the rewards have to come, and it’s time to enjoy it now.”

Torres had only registered once in the league since late September, turning creator rather than scorer in the interim, but

drew praise from Di Matteo. “I was always pleased with his contribution and he was always working hard for the team, putting the assists in,” said the Italian. I’m pleased for him today. It’s great for a striker, for his confidence, but we work as a team. The whole team is playing with confidence now. I have to say the team surprised me because, after a Champions League game in midweek, it can prove difficult. But we put in a great performance.”

John Terry, dismissed at the Camp Nou, was among the home side’s scorers, with the captain using his programme notes to apologise for kneeing Alexis Sánchez in the back to prompt his red card. The Chelsea captain came face to face with Anton Ferdinand here, with his trial for allegedly racially abusing the QPR defender set for 9 July, and the pair were booed and the subject of chants from both sets of supporters. “John is a player with a lot of experience who has been challenged before,” said Di Matteo. “But he showed his leadership qualities with our ‘unusual’ back four.”

Hat-trick striker played with the air of a man who had never missed a chance in his life

It is easier to play like Barcelona when you are not actually playing against them. There was a festive air about a sodden Stamford Bridge on Sunday, and Queens Park Rangers proved the perfect opponents against whom to celebrate a triumphant passage to the European Cup final last Tuesday. Going four goals up inside 25 minutes, it was as though Chelsea had come home to show their fans that, in the right circumstances, they can turn on the style as well as anyone.

The man who delivered the coup de grâce to Barcelona in the Camp Nou walked away with the ball and the man‑of‑the‑match award. While his team‑mates’ concentration inevitably wavered after the early avalanche of goals, Fernando Torres was magnificent for the whole 90 minutes, his hat-trick – a genuine one, with goals three, four and five, and the first of his career at Chelsea – giving the club an idea of what they can expect when Didier Drogba finally leaves the premises.

Amusingly, Torres insisted afterwards that he is not playing as well now as he was when he was not scoring regularly. But since Roman Abramovich shelled out £50m for his goals, this haul represented a satisfactory return. It took the Spaniard into double figures in all competitions since his arrival at the Bridge 15 months ago, seven of them coming since the end of a five-month dry spell that lasted from October to March.

The manner in which he took his goals in this west London derby suggested that he is more than capable of building on the confidence engendered by that dramatic breakaway effort in Catalunya. His opener against QPR, to put his side 3-0 up in the 19th minute, came from a slick move in which he fed Juan Mata and raced forward as his compatriot transferred the ball to Salomon Kalou. Torres arrived in the right place to collect the Ivorian’s excellent pass before doing to Paddy Kenny almost exactly what he had done to Victor Valdés last Tuesday.

His second, six minutes later, represented a piece of high-class opportunism, and he hooked in the loose ball after a mix‑up between Kenny and Nedum Onuoha with the air of a man who has never missed a chance in his life. He had to wait until the 64th minute for the completion of his scoring for the day, timing his sprint down the inside left channel on to Mata’s pass quite beautifully before smoothly measuring a shot inside the far post.

Chelsea certainly dominated the conditions, probably the most difficult experienced at the Bridge since José Mourinho shamefully attempted to nullify Frank Rijkaard’s Barcelona a few years ago by persuading the groundsman to prepare a pitch that resembled a potato patch. This time the club’s management had nothing to do with it. Incessant rain had produced a surface so waterlogged that in the early minutes Djibril Cissé, sliding on the seat of his pants as he delivered a cross from the left, disappeared inside a plume of water, leaving only the bleached rectangle on the top of his head – which appeared to be the consequence of an unfortunate misunderstanding with a Brazilian waxing specialist – visible above the spray.

Torres played no part in the goal with which Daniel Sturridge got Chelsea off to a flying start after 45 seconds, or the one with which John Terry doubled the lead with a header from Mata’s corner a dozen minutes later. But the sixth and last goal summed up his willingness to involve himself to the benefit of his team‑mates as he acted as a pivot, exchanging passes with Ramires, whose cut-back from the right was deflected by Anton Ferdinand into the path of Florent Malouda. Torres had been doing that sort of thing all afternoon, and in a sense his three goals were a reward for all the unselfish foraging and linking.

He did enough, in fact, to suggest that Vicente del Bosque may be inclined to look at him in a more positive light when considering his starting lineup for Spain’s opening match of the Euro 2012 finals against Italy on 10 June. Torres has not scored for his country since a double against Liechtenstein in September 2010, but on Sunday he started to look once again like the man to give a cutting edge to the midfield maestros to whom he and his Chelsea team‑mates brought such dismay last week.

• Torres goal rounded-off stunning Chelsea win at Barcelona
• Striker surprised by chance: ‘I was playing almost at left-back’

Fernando Torres has spoken of his delight after scoring the dramatic goal against Barcelona that secured Chelsea’s place in the Champions League final, and admitted he never imagined such an opportunity would crop up.

The Spain international has an impressive record against Barcelona, scoring seven goals in 10 league appearances for Atlético Madrid, but said he expected to spend his time defending when he came on as a substitute on Tuesday night.

“I was not expecting to have any chances,” Torres said. “I was playing almost as a left-back. The only chance we could have was on the counter-attack like this.

“One more goal against Barcelona. I have nice memories in this stadium, nice memories against them. But this one’s more special than any one before because it helped us to go the final. I am very happy to be part of the game, to score the goal.

“To be in the Champions League final, obviously, is a dream come true for all the Chelsea players, for all the Chelsea supporters who come here and everyone watching the game at home.

“It’s the second Champions League final for Chelsea. Everyone knows what happened in the past with the penalty shoot-out. So, I think Chelsea deserved a second chance and we have the chance now.”

Chelsea went into Tuesday night’s match boasting a 1-0 first-leg lead but went behind to goals from Sergio Busquets and Andrés Iniesta, either side of Terry’s sending off for inexplicably kneeing Alexis Sánchez from behind.

But, while he scored the equalising goal, Torres was quick to highlight Ramires’s goal in first-half stoppage time as the game-changing moment.

“It was frustrating to be on the bench watching the game,” he said. “It’s a difficult moment when you cannot help your team-mates. We are happy now but, to win the game, there were a lot of ups and downs.

“When JT was sent off, when they scored the second one, it looked like everything was lost. And after Ramires scored to make it 2-1, at half-time we started believing that we could do it. That goal made us believe. That was the key for us.

“After the 2-2 and getting to the final, there are a lot of different emotions during the game, a day to remember.”

Chelsea will find out their opponents for the 19 May final on Wednesday evening when Real Madrid and Bayern Munich meet for their semi-final second leg. Torres says Chelsea are ready to face either.

“It doesn’t matter. They have to play one more game and Bayern Munich are another great team. We are waiting for one of them in the final but the main thing is Chelsea’s there and we have a chance to win it.

“If we play with this unity, we can beat anyone. To not lose against Barcelona in two games is quite difficult. Everyone at the club and the supporters have to be very proud.”

There were plenty of excitable Chelsea fans when Fernando Torres sealed their team’s 2-2 draw with Barcelona to reach the Uefa Champions’ League final. But were any of them quite as excited as former Manchester United star turned Sky News summariser Gary Neville? For some it was a bloodcurdling scream not unlike poor Nigel Pargetter’s fall off the roof in the Archers. For others it drew unfortunate comparisons with a particularly pleasurable bodily function which the French describe as “la petite mort”. In Neville’s case, there was nothing little about it.

• Neville blames reaction to Torres goal on his sore throat
• Chelsea beat Barcelona to reach Champions League final

Among the defining moments of Chelsea’s dramatic aggregate win over Barcelona, Gary Neville’s reaction to Fernando Torres’s goal made one of the biggest impacts on Twitter.

When Torres broke clear in added time and scored Chelsea’s second, Sky’s co-commentator let rip with a howl described variously as a “goalgasm”, as a Meg Ryan tribute – “when Gary met Sally”, and as what he would sound like “if he fell down a well”.

Neville later explained the noise by blaming his sore throat – tweeting a photo of some Strepsils.

Neville’s Alan Partridge moment is set to win him a place on future lists of the greatest spontaneous moments in football commentary – alongside the likes of Barry Davies (“Interesting. Very interesting! Look at his face! Just look at his face!”), and Jack van Gelder – who marked a Dennis Bergkamp goal for Holland against Argentina in 1998 with the classic:

“Dennis Bergkamp! Dennis Bergkamp! Dennis Bergkamp! Dennis Bergkamp! Dennis Bergkamp! Dennis Bergkamp! Dennis Bergkamp! Dennis Bergkamp! Uh-e-uh-e-uh!”

Among the defining moments of Chelsea’s dramatic aggregate win over Barcelona, Gary Neville’s reaction to Fernando Torres’s goal made one of the biggest impacts on Twitter. – video