AVB defends Torres

Andre Villas-Boas has claimed Fernando Torres would be mentally weak if he had allowed Chelsea team-mate Didier Drogba to intimidate him.

Villas-Boas was confident Torres had not become the latest Blues striker to be "devoured" by Drogba, as Carlo Ancelotti claimed this week. Ancelotti, who Villas-Boas succeeded as Chelsea manager last summer, insisted Drogba had to be sold for Torres to flourish at Stamford Bridge.

But Villas-Boas has rejected Ancelotti's analysis, saying: "It would be unfair for a player of Fernando's personality and dimension to conclude that one is inflicting on the other one's belief. If that was the case with any player, it would be a mental weakness or a mental block, which is not the case in my opinion."

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