Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas has defended Fernando Torres over his lack of goals.

Villas-Boas compared Torres' lot to that of £27million Edin Dzeko at Manchester City, with the latter also finding himself dropped despite a far greater goal return.

"We have a player like Dzeko with plenty of goals but he's not used all the time by City," Villas-Boas said.

"The numbers, statistically, are impressive for Dzeko.

"He had scored 10 goals in the first few weeks of the season.

"But (City boss Roberto) Mancini feels others offer something positive and different for the team."

He added of Torres, who has netted only five times in almost year at Chelsea and not for three months: "It hurts everybody in the sense of goal statistics but he's doing tremendously for the team.

"He's a striker with a hunger for goals who wants to be in the box.

"We've seen him in the box, we've seen him arrive and create danger.

"As long as he's working well for the team, I don't care how the statistics will finish and how dramatic people think they are."