Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech has expressed his belief that Fernando Torres is back to his best following a difficult start to his career at the club.

Torres, who has been heavily criticised for his performances since his £50m move from Liverpool in 2011, profited on a defensive mix-up to score a late winner for Chelsea in yesterday's match against Manchester City.

Cech believes that the goal demonstrated the Spanish striker's persistence and believes that he is now playing as well as he has ever played in his life.

"He never gives up. This is why he scored the second goal, because he was chasing the guy all the way and the defender made a mistake," Cech told Chelsea TV.

"He didn't see the goalkeeper coming, which I thought he had plenty of time to see the goalkeeper coming, but he didn't because Fernando was putting him under pressure. And because he followed he had an easy tap in.

"This is the debate everybody's been having for a long time. There were so many games when Fernando was absolutely brilliant, but because he didn't score everybody's saying 'oh, he didn't score'. Now he's scoring goals, he's making goals, he's playing as well as he has during his life."

Torres has now scored five goals in 11 matches this season, although Sunday's strike against Man City was his first Premier League goal of the current campaign.