Alvaro Morata has had a dream start to his Chelsea career after scoring 7 goals in 8 matches. The £60m forward from Real Madrid has hit the ground running and has so far proved himself to be an able replacement for Diego Costa.
Morata has been in red-hot form for club and country after racking up 8 goals and 2 assists in 10 appearances this season. He followed his weekend hat-trick against Stoke with a commanding display in Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Atletico bagging a goal in the process.
Morata started again over the weekend against City but limped off in the 35th minute clutching his left hamstring. In what was considered the biggest match of the premier league season so far, Chelsea were by far the second best and failed to keep up with Guardiola’s free-flowing side. Morata’s injury did not help their cause as Chelsea were clearly struggling to initiate attacks without a target-man. Conte’s decision to snub Batshuyai, who is a direct replacement for Morata and introduce Willian instead, showed his lack of faith in Chelsea’s back-up striker.
Batshuyai, despite scoring 6 goals this season, has not scored in the Premier League and Conte’s decision to rebuff the striker for the City match exposed Chelsea’s lack of options up front. Chelsea are already 5 points off the pace in the title race and have a double-header against an in-form AS Roma followed by Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.
With so many important matches coming up, Chelsea need to hit the ground running and Conte needs one of his strikers to do a Costa from last year and lead the line for Chelsea. Chelsea’s only other option is recalling young Tammy Abraham who is currently on loan at Swansea City.
Their lack of options up front coupled with Conte’s lack of willingness to bank on Batshuyai for the big matches clearly shows their dependency on the 24-year old Spanish forward and the Blues will be hoping that Morata‘s injury scare is not serious or else it might just bring down an early curtain to their season in terms of major trophies, especially a title defense of the league.
Conte eased Chelsea fears by saying that the injury is not serious and Morata limped off more as a precaution in order to prevent a muscle pull or tear in the hamstring. Reports have confirmed that Morata is unlikely to start for Chelsea atleast till the busy festive period where they will need him.
So Conte will now have to chalk plans for life without him the next few weeks and will be helped by the international break. Can Chelsea cope with Morata’s absence?
