Chelsea showed its rivals for England's final Champions League place just how hard they will have to fight to finish in the top four, beating Queens Park Rangers 6-1 Sunday. Although Tottenham returned to fourth place with a 2-0 win over Blackburn, Fernando Torres' first hat trick in more than 2½ years helped confirm that Chelsea is the in-form team of three aiming to qualify for Europe's club top competition. Chelsea, which could yet render the race for fourth place immaterial if it wins next month's Champions League final, hit four goals in the opening 25 minutes at Stamford Bridge and only conceded with six minutes left. The Blues reached the Champions League final in midweek by completing a two-legged win over Barcelona and would qualify as defending champion if it beats Bayern Munich for the trophy, leaving England's fourth-place team to enter the second-tier Europa League instead. Daniel Sturridge scored after 49 seconds, John Terry headed in a corner and the rejuvenated Torres scored twice to put the result beyond doubt with more than an hour remaining. Torres struck again for his first hat trick since September 2009 and substitute Florent Malouda scored in the 80th. Djibril Cisse got a late goal back for relegation-threatened QPR. Chelsea next hosts fifth-place Newcastle on Wednesday, when Tottenham is at Bolton. Rafael van der Vaart and Kyle Walker scored Sunday for Tottenham, which had 19 shots to none by relegation-threatened Blackburn. England turns to Hodgson Roy Hodgson became the leading contender to take charge of England at Euro 2012 on Sunday when the English FA said it had spoken to the West Bromwich Albion manager about succeeding Fabio Capello. The FA said the vastly-experienced Hodgson, 64, was the only candidate they had approached about replacing Italian Capello who quit in February following a row over deposed England captain John Terry. Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp had been widely considered to be the strong favorite to get the job. Redknapp has repeatedly said he is totally committed to Spurs and would not talk about England unless he was offered the position. “West Bromwich Albion have today granted permission for the FA to speak with Roy Hodgson regarding the position of England manager,” the FA said in a statement. With Euro 2012 little more than a month away, England is still without a full-time manager. U-21 coach Stuart Pearce is acting as caretaker manager for the senior squad who next face a friendly against Norway in Oslo on May 26.
