CHELSEA DO MISS COSTA
Morata’s flying but Conte could regret losing his rabble-rouser this winter
THERE are already reminders in Alvaro Morata of the player Chelsea were looking for when they signed Fernando Torres six years ago.
The goals, of course — six from five after Saturday’s hat-trick. The pace, the intuitive sense of the best positions to take up and the sheer physical strength. Morata made his markers uncomfortable on and off the ball in the game which will teach Diego Costa what being quickly forgotten looks like, should he catch the highlights.
But beware drawing football conclusions before the leaves are on the ground. To be factored in on this occasion are what Mark Hughes described as Stoke’s ‘catastrophic defensive moments’. We will have a far better measure of Morata five days from now, by which time he will have faced Atletico Madrid in the Champions League and Manchester City in the Premier League. Remember this is a 24-year-old who has started only 46 senior league matches in his life.
This week will teach us more about what Antonio Conte possesses, too. Perverse though it seems to say so after a steamroller win in the stadium which is supposed to be particularly inhospitable, it still feels like a little of the light has gone out of the team. Don’t bet against Costa’s rabblerousing qualities being desperately missed in the depths of winter.
They eased beyond Hughes’s makeshift central defence easily enough. All contenders for a place in that structure were either injured, ineligible or incapable of a fraction of Morata’s speed of thought. But Chelsea were second best in midfield after going ahead on 82 seconds. Tiemoue Bakayoko started with promise, setting the first goal move in motion, but then proved unequal to Xherdan Shaqiri. Joe Allen was more influential than N’Golo Kante.
The source of the champions’ electricity was Cesar Azpilicueta, who has provided assists for four of Morata’s six goals. That illustrates what an antithesis to Costa the new No 9 is, as he lurks on the defender’s shoulder, waiting with submarine stealth to pounce on a ball into space. But Azpilicueta was the de facto captain, too — organising and instructing.
There will certainly be more to fear in Chelsea when Eden Hazard, limited to 17 minutes here, returns to the starting line-up after his ankle injury. Asked if he had been kept back at Stoke so he could start in Madrid, Conte said: ‘Yes. For sure. I think he is showing that he’s ready.’
But Conte also acknowledged that it was dangerous to expect the world from Morata immediately. ‘Alvaro, don’t forget, in his previous experiences, didn’t play a lot with Juventus and Real Madrid,’ the manager said. ‘Now he has a great chance to show that he is a really good striker.’
His contribution is far more contingent on those around him than Costa’s was. Torres was only a year younger than Morata when he arrived at Liverpool and his relationship with Steven Gerrard was a huge part of his success. Gerrard would knock it into space and Torres would materialise there. That helped make Torres unstoppable from 2008 to 2009.