ALVARO CAN STILL DO MOR

MAURIZIO SARRI claimed Alvaro Morata needs to be mentally stronger to be a top Premier League-newspapers striker.

The £60million Spain forward (right) scored twice against Crystal Palace to lift Chelsea above Liverpool into second place.

Morata has now netted four times in his last four league games and the

26-year-old has scored in back-to-back matches for the first time in a year.

But he blew the chance to score a hat-trick in injury time. And Sarri admitted he still needed to improve before he can be compared to the likes of Harry Kane (right) and Sergio Aguero. “I am really very happy for Alvaro – he improved in the last month in confidence and personality,” said Sarri.

“He improved also from a tactical and technical point of view. Now he’s able to play more with the team. Alvaro has very great physical and technical potential, so he can still improve more.

“He’s a little bit fragile from the mental point of view. But he’s very young. I think he can improve and very fast. Potentially, he can be a top striker.” Palace’s winless streak is now six games and boss Roy Hodgson said: “We don’t have as many points as we should have, but let’s see where we are after 38 games.

“It doesn’t really matter where you are at Christmas. We were rarely outside the relegation zone last season but ended up 11th.”