Ba: I’ll fight for my place, even against Rooney

DEMBA BA is determined to stay and fight for his place at Chelsea — even if the club succeed in their efforts to sign Wayne Rooney. ‘I will stay,’ insisted Ba after scoring his first goal of preseason in the 8-1 romp against Indonesia All Stars in Jakarta. ‘I think we need competition and we welcome the best players in this club. ‘More competition is going to make me better. All players want to play, not only centre forwards. We will all work in the same direction, for the club, to try and win the games.’ It is less than eight months since Chelsea paid £7million to sign Ba from Newcastle, but there has been speculation that he will be the striker to make way if Manchester United can be persuaded to sell England striker Rooney. Ba was among the top scorers in the country last season with 15 in the Barclays Premier League — but only two of those goals came after leaving Tyneside for Stamford Bridge in January. Chelsea’s former interim manager Rafa Benitez revealed that Ba, with well-documented knee problems, found it difficult to play two games in quick succession towards the end of last season and the fast-improving Romelu Lukaku is the striker who has dazzled for Chelsea in pre-season. Lukaku scored 17 Premier League goals on loan at West Bromwich Albion last season and has four for Chelsea in Asia in only 135 minutes of pre-season football. In the absence of Fernando Torres, on extended leave after playing for Spain in the Confederations Cup, Jose Mourinho has given Ba and Lukaku a half each in the three tour games, starting twice with Lukaku and once with Ba, who says he is in good shape after the first stage of pre-season. ‘I feel good,’ said Ba. ‘It’s always good to score but at this stage it’s more about the work and running a lot on the pitch to get your condition back. It’s been a good week’s work with the new manager. We will see what happens in the next few weeks.’ Chelsea flew back from Asia last night and have the weekend off before reporting for training on Monday and flying to the USA on Tuesday for four more games, starting against Inter Milan.

MATT BARLOW