The win against Manchester United handed a much-needed lifeline to Antonio Conte who had felt the heat following an underwhelming start to their defence of the Premier League title.
The season started with an uncharacteristic defeat against Burnley which dealt a severe blow to their title challenge. Back to back defeats against Manchester City and minnows Crystal Palace left them stranded on the edge but their performance in the last three matches including a deserving win against the Red Devils was a matter of relief for the West Londoners.
But a recent injury to Michy Batshuayi has awakened a new problem for Antonio Conte. The Belgian international withdrew his name from the national squad who are scheduled to clash with Mexico in an upcoming friendly.
Batshuayi has been diagnosed with a foot injury and has returned to London but the severity of his injury is still unknown and Conte would be hoping it appears as a minor one.
The absence of a substantial cover has exposed the gaffer a number of times and he is likely to have a second thought how to imply his strategy. Batshuayi’s injury leaves Conte only with Alvaro Morata who recently survived an injury scare.
On being asked about Batshuayi’s injury Belgium manager Roberto Martinez said, “When Michy arrived he was in pain.
“He has not trained since the squad met.
‘He is out of the team for both the games and has already returned to Chelsea.”
Morata also gave the national training a miss, giving rise to speculations that the player might have aggravated his old injury but to everyone’s relief, the striker confirmed it was only a minor injury.
Conte had tried to bring in a good backup striker in the form of Fernando Llorente but the Spaniard snubbed the West Londoners at the last moment as he switched his allegiance to Tottenham Hotspur.
Batshuayi looked sharp in the pre-season and it looked like he is going to make Morata’s life tough but he hasn’t had much chance to glorify his position at the Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea might regret the decision to let Dominic Solanke and Tammy Abraham leave the club although the latter is expected to join the club at the end of this season. But as of now, Conte needs to make some decision and Eden Hazard can make his work easy with his enigmatic presence in the Blues’ attack.
The Belgian superstar has played as a centre-forward earlier and should be ready to lead the line alongside Morata.
