WHO NEEDS DIEGO? Morat-trick is proof Conte & Co can cope without Costa

ALVARO MORATA yesterday made Chelsea’s £67million transfer of Diego Costa to Atletico Madrid look like the sale of the season. Chelsea brought in a striker from Madrid in the summer – Real’s Morata – to replace Costa.

And yesterday Morata scored his first hat-trick for the Stamford Bridge club as the champions romped to a comfortable 4-0 win at Stoke.

That took his scoring tally to six in seven games already for the Blues, prompting the question: Who needs Costa?

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte, though, challenged Morata to keep up his form to become “a great striker.”

Of Morata’s hat-trick, the Italian (left) said: “It was very important.

“I am very pleased with him and very pleased with the performance of the team. Now, he has to continue in this way to be a great striker.

“Don’t forget, in our last match against Nottingham Forest, Michy Batshuayi scored three, too, so we are creating a lot of chances for our strikers.

“I am very happy because it is not easy to win at Stoke.

“We deserved to win the game. We started well and scored early. We were in control of the game.

“I repeat, it’s not simple to win away against them.”

Chelsea revealed last night that GOT ’EM LICKED: Star man Morata Morata also wanted to thank the fans for changing the words of a controversial chant they had been singing earlier this season, which was intended to be insulting to bitter rivals Tottenham and their Jewish supporters.

Yesterday, the Chelsea fans sang instead: “Morata, he came from sunny Spain, he’s better than Harry Kane.”

Conte, meanwhile, added that goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois was all right after falling heavily on his back and neck in the second half.