Fernando Torres April 2011, Torres scored his first goal for Chelsea against West Ham United in a 3–0 victory, which ended a run of 903 minutes of football without a goal. This was his only goal for Chelsea in the 2010–11 season, having made 18 appearances for his new club. Torres got the 2011–12 season underway in Chelsea's 0–0 draw away against Stoke City on 14 August 2011, in which his "link-up play was sharp, plus he was willing to make intelligent runs into space to receive the ball". He scored his second goal at Chelsea, and his first of the season,
Rafael Benítez his club's new owners had to back him in the transfer market in order for Liverpool to progress following his side's 2–1 loss to Milan in the final. It was reported Benítez did not feel he had the complete support of the new owners, a thought that was compounded by Liverpool's initial lack of activity in the transfer window, although the club played these rumours down. Benítez's spending was, eventually, significant, breaking Liverpool's transfer record when signing Spanish striker Fernando Torres from Atlético Madrid as well as signing Ryan Babel, Yossi Benayoun, Lucas Leiva and Andriy Voronin. Among those Benítez