Fight the good fight
Chelsea’s Matic vows to battle for first team spot with Kante
LONDON: Nemanja Matic has vowed to stay at Chelsea and fight it out with N’Golo Kante for a place in the team.
The Serbian midfielder’s days looked numbered when new boss Antonio Conte snapped up Kante from Leicester for £29mil (RM154mil).
Kante, 25, joined up with the Chelsea team for the first time yesterday as they head to Los Angeles for their US tour.
Matic, who had a below-par campaign last season as the Blues limped to 10th in the English Premier League, has welcomed his arrival.
But he warned: “I’m sure that 100,000 players want to come to play for Chelsea so there’s always competition.
“All life is a fight, so every player is ready for that.
“It’s great to have him here. All good players are welcome at Chelsea.
“He’s a great player and he’ll bring a lot of qualities to our team.
“It was difficult to play against him last season and I’m very happy because he’s come to us.”
Fellow new signing Michy Batshuayi hooked up with Chelsea on Monday.
The Belgian came on for his debut in the last 32 minutes of the 3-0 win against Austrian minnows Wolfsberger on Wednesday night.
Batshuayi, who reported for club duty a week early, could have hit a hat-trick.
And Matic, 27, said: “Of course it shows good attitude that he wants to work with the team, to be with the team and settle quickly.
“He showed in the game he has quality.
“I hope he is going to bring quality to our team and improve with us and that’s it, this is his first game and we are going to see how he is going to fit into our team.
“He is a good striker and that’s why Chelsea bought him and I am sure he’ll score a lot of goals.
“I’m very happy because we’ve a lot of players now and we’re still missing some.”
Matic admits that Conte is proving to be a tough taskmaster.
The Italian coach has been putting the squad through gruelling double training sessions since he took over.
Matic said: “We’ve trained very hard. He is a coach who always wants more from you and I am sure we will improve.
“Every day we have double sessions and work really hard but that’s good for our physical shape and of course when the games start, it won’t continue like this.”
Chelsea face Liverpool on Thursday in their opening game of the pre-season International Champions Cup tournament in LA before playing Real Madrid in Detroit on Saturday then AC Milan on Aug 7.
They wrap up their pre-season programme with a friendly away to Werden Bremen on Aug 10.