LESS TALK MOR GOALS
Blues hitman is here to stay and vows to get back to scoring ways
ALVARO MORATA has vowed to prove his commitment to Chelsea by doing his talking on the pitch from now on.
The club record £70m signing from Real Madrid landed himself in hot water by giving an interview at the weekend which threw his future at Stamford Bridge into doubt.
But after doing an abrupt U-turn yesterday, he has now set his sights on helping them take control of Champions League Group C.
Morata, who spent two seasons in Italy with Juventus, has never scored against Roma and wants to break his duck tonight. He has already scored six goals in nine Premier League games for Chelsea and hit another in their win away at Atletico Madrid.
Morata, who is set to lead the attack with Eden Hazard, said: “Against Roma, I’ve never scored before. I’ll try to do that. I didn’t play many games against them... five? 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. It’s easy playing with Eden.
“I think 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 last month, and it was left to Hazard to bag the winner at Bournemouth on Saturday.
The Spain star missed a series of chances in that game but insists he is now 100 per cent fit.
Morata said: “The only thing I needed was to come back to full fitness.
“If I missed chances and the team lost, I’d be thinking all day about these chances. But we got the three points.
“Honestly, I’m 100 per cent fit. 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 fitness, that’s all.”
Morata twice won the Serie A title and the Coppa Italia during his time on loan at Juve.
He added: “It’s always a pleasure to come back to Italy. I like so much this country, but now we’re here to try and get the three points.
“It’s a very important ® from PAUL BROWN in Rome match for us. We need to be at 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 boss Antonio Conte has a decision to make over midfielder N’Golo Kante, who is pushing for a recall after a hamstring injury.
But the Italian, whose side face Manchester United this Sunday, said: “I think it’s very important, in this moment, 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 best decision for him, for the team.
Tough
“Kante has trained with us. He trained also before the game against Bournemouth. For sure, we’ll try and make the best decision.”
The Blues are sitting pretty at the top of Group C, two points ahead of Roma and five ahead of Atletico.
Conte added: “There are two big games before the international break, against Roma and then United on Sunday.
“For us, for sure, two big games. But the most important thing is to go game by game.
“The most important game is against Roma. We have to try and get a good result.
“That will be really important, a good result, and then we must try and prepare for another tough game against United.”