Chelsea news: Antonio Conte explains his five changes against Qarabag

ANTONIO CONTE admits he made five changes against Qarabag last night to give Chelsea’s fringe players a chance to prove themselves.

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Chelsea kicked off their Champions League Group C campaign with a 6-0 win at home to Azerbaijan outfit Qarabag.

And Conte made five changes to his starting line up from the 2-1 win over Leicester on Saturday.

Andreas Christensen, Michy Batshuayi, Davide Zappacosta and Willian all got the chance to prove their worth, while captain Gary Cahill returned following his three-match domestic ban.

“I wanted to give a good chance to Michy, and also to Christensen,” Conte told the club’s official website. 

Antonio ConteGETTY

Antonio Conte keen to give Chelsea fringe players a chance

To play in the Champions League means the coach trusts you

Antonio Conte

“To play in the Champions League means the coach trusts you. My message tonight was this. I trust all my players, not only with words but with facts.

“For the first game in the Champions League I decided to start with rotation. Also because we have to start the process to improve our players. 

“If we think we can play with 13 players like last season, we are crazy. 

“Instead, we have to improve our players and try to create a good competition between them. A positive competition is very important.”

Chelsea refused to sit back and continued to push forward for the whole 90 minutes at Stamford Bridge - and Conte admits this will always be his brand of football.

The Italian added: “Our style of football is always like this, to push from the start to the end.

“We are not good at managing a game and for this reason I prefer to continue to press. Against Leicester it was the same. 

“After [it went to] 2-1 I decided to make offensive substitutions with Hazard and Willian and try to score the third goal, instead of waiting, dropping and risking.”

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