Apologetic talking on
ALVARO MORATA has vowed to prove his commitment to Chelsea by walking the talk on the pitch from now on.
The club- record £ 70million signing from Real Madrid landed himself in hot water with an interview at the weekend that raised questions over his desire to stay at Stamford Bridge. But Morata has now rowed back on those words and set his sights on helping Chelsea take control of Champions League Group C.
Morata has never scored against Roma despite spending two years in Italy with Juventus and wants to break his duck against them. He has already scored six goals in nine Premier League games for Chelsea and hit another in their win away at Atletico Madrid.
But he believes he is only just getting started and warned Roma that the best is yet to come from him and in- form winger Eden Hazard.
Morata said: “Against Roma I’ve never scored before. We’ll try to do that. I didn’t play many games against them... fi ve? But, completely, perhaps one or two. I’ll try to score.
“With Eden, we have a good understanding. He’s one of the best players in the world and it’s easy playing with Eden.
“We can improve a lot. The only thing is we need to play more games together.”
Morata has not scored since his return from the hamstring injury he suffered against Manchester City and it was left to Hazard to net the winner over Bournemouth on Saturday.
The Spain star missed a series of chances in that game but believes he is now 100 per cent fi t again and ready to recapture his goalscoring form.
Morata said: “In the last game I missed one chance when I didn’t have too much space, and another when Asmir Begovic made a good save. The only thing I needed was to come back to full fi tness. If I missed chances and the team lost, I’d be thinking all day about these chances. But we got the three points and the win.
“When I arrived home, I was thinking about these chances but I hope the next time I can score a goal. “Honestly, now I’m 100 per cent fi t. Probably in the last few games I’ve not been at the best physical form but now I’m better. It’s hard. I just needed to come back to full fi tness, that’s all.”
Morata won the Serie A title twice and the Coppa Italia during his time on loan at Juventus and still has fond memories of his time in Italy.
He said: “It’s always a pleasure to come back to Italy. I like this country so much, but now we’re here to try to get the three points.
“It’s a very important match for us and we need to be at ( 4- 3- 3) ( 3- 4- 3) ALISSON COURTOIS FLORENZI AZPILICUETA MANOLAS LUIZ FAZIO CAHILL KOLAROV ZAPPACOSTA NAINGGOLAN BAKAYOKO DE ROSSI FABREGAS STROOTMAN ALONSO PEROTTI WILLIAN DZEKO MORATA GERSON HAZARD REF: J Eriksson ( Swe). TV: BT Sport 2. KICK- OFF: 7.45pm. 100 per cent in the game. It doesn’t matter if we are in Italy, London or Spain: the only important thing is the three points.”
Chelsea manager Conte has a decision over N’Golo Kante, pushing for a recall hamstring injury.
But the Italian, whose side face Manchester United on Sunday, said: “It’s very important to speak with the player and then see his sensation.
“I was a player and you know very well that, after an injury, a bad injury, it’s very important to listen to the player and what are his sensations and then make the Antonio to make who is after a