And that's with support from the creative talents of Juan Mata, Eden Hazard, and Oscar.
WSJ: Rafa Benitez Era at English Soccer's Chelsea a Mixed Bag
Chelsea's Eden Hazard apologised for kicking a ball boy during his team's Capital One Cup exit to Swansea.
Frank Lampard's 200th goal for the club and an Eden Hazard effort sealed the points for Rafa Benitez's side.
Highly-rated attacker Eden Hazard moved from French team Lille to Chelsea in June.
Eden Hazard was denied an equaliser by a smart Pepe Reina save, but Torres chipped in the second after the break.
New signing Demba Ba and Belgian midfielder Eden Hazard had given Chelsea a comfortable advantage at the break as the Blues dominated.
Despite attacking players such as Brazilian playmaker Oscar and Belgian forward Eden Hazard impressing since arriving during the last preseason, Chelsea has struggled defensively.
However, defender John Terry and midfielder Eden Hazard were taken off with injuries and are battling to be fit for Wednesday's Europa League final against Benfica.
Fernando Torres tested Ciprian Tatarusanu with a volley just before halftime and Eden Hazard went close as the game entered its dying stages as his volley grazed the crossbar.
Mata was brought down soon after, allowing veteran midfielder Frank Lampard to continue his scoring run with a penalty, and Eden Hazard sealed it with a superb long-range effort.
He nearly scored a second moments later after Eden Hazard chased down the ball by the byline and fired a cross in toward Ba, but Pantilimon was able to block the effort.
United grabbed the advantage for the third time just before the hour mark when Nani rounded off a flowing move only for Eden Hazard's 90th minute penalty to send the game into extra-time.
Less flattering to the tournament though just as talked about was the semifinal fracas when Chelsea's Eden Hazard kicked a Swansea ball boy who was wasting time for the home side late in a game.
Chelsea are now favorites to win the competition but they nearly fell at their first Europa League hurdle against Sparta Prague after a late Eden Hazard goal sealed their place in the next round.
In the replay, Benitez's deployment of Ba, Eden Hazard and Juan Mata up front proved key -- as did Petr Cech's superb one-handed save to deny Javier Hernandez's header to keep Chelsea ahead in the game.
Even with Benitez's decision to rest the likes of Eden Hazard, Ashley Cole, Ramires and Juan Mata, Chelsea was expected to see off a QPR side which had already lost 12 of its 20 league games.
Chelsea's first chance came in the 23rd, when an inswinging free kick was only cleared out to Eden Hazard, whose bouncing shot from outside the area went over Pantilimon but was cleared off the line by Vincent Kompany.
In Group B , French side Lille moved two points clear at the top with a 3-0 crushing of Italy's Genoa, with Ludovic Obraniak scoring seven minutes before halftime and Robert Vittek and Eden Hazard adding goals after the break.
Read: Eden Hazard, right or wrong?
CNN: Hazard charged with violent conduct over ball boy incident
The company pounced when the South Korean flag was shown next to North Korean players on a big screen before an Olympic football game in Glasgow in July and when Chelsea's Eden Hazard clashed with a ball boy in Swansea in January, taking out newspaper ads.
However, he may still have to appease some fans after saying that his failure to land his top five transfer targets before the season - including United's very own Robin van Persie, Chelsea's Eden Hazard, Javi Martinez (Bayern Munich), Lazio's Daniele De Rossi and Daniel Agger of Liverpool - had cost his team its chance of glory this year.
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