Following a very comfortable win at the Bet365 Stadium against a Stoke City team depleted by injuries, Antonio Conte has, as ever, been speaking to the media, and giving his thoughts. First up had to be hat-trick hero Alvaro Morata, Conte was naturally pleased with his new talisman,
`Alvaro performed very well, he scored a hat-trick and for a striker this is very important, and don`t forget the last game it happened the same with Batshuayi. It means we create chances for our strikers.`
Morata has now scored six goals in his first six Premier League games, he`s also had two assists. Up until this game his weapon of choice had been his head, the three goals in this game came from his feet. The Bet365 is normally a tough place to visit for Chelsea, the Potters can be uncompromising to say the least as Conte remembered from last season,
`I am pleased for his performance and the performance of the team. It is not easy to win away games against Stoke, this game is always difficult. I remember very well last season when we struggled a lot to win and we won at the end of the game. Today we started very well and then we were good when suffering [pressure from Stoke]. It was important not to lose our composure and to stay always in the game, and then we scored two goals and we created many chances to improve the score. It was 4-0 but it was a difficult game.`
Thibaut Courtois fell awkwardly in the second half, the manager had check with his medical staff as to whether the Belgian was good to carry on,
`I spoke with our doctor about Thibaut, above all about whether I could make a different substitution and he said Thibaut was okay and you can make another substitution. Now he is okay and ready to play the next game against Atletico Madrid.`
Good news with the games coming thick and fast. Marcos Alonso had a competitive afternoon with Mame Diouf and was given a yellow card as the tackles went flying in, speculation was that Alonso was subbed before he received a red card. Conte explained that situation,
`’Alonso was a tactical substitution because I saw Mark Hughes was about to bring on Peter Crouch. I remember last season we always suffered against him and for this reason, I preferred to reinforce the defence with Cahill and play Azpilicueta as wing-back.
Regarding the potential second yellow for Alonso, Conte felt the situation was clear enough,
`Alonso never risked taking a second yellow card. The person who risked a lot was Peter Crouch with a bad tackle.`
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