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Alvaro Morata: Eden Hazard is in the top three players in the world
Antonio Conte will hope he and the travelling Chelsea fans witnessed the start of what will quickly become a beautiful relationship in Madrid on Wednesday night.
It took only five minutes of their first start together against Atlético Madrid in the Champions League for Eden Hazard to provide Álvaro Morata with his first shooting chance.
The Belgian went on to give Morata at least one more sight of goal before providing the second-half left-wing cross from which Chelsea’s record signing scored his seventh goal for the club.
By the time Michy Batshuayi tapped in Chelsea’s stoppage time winner, the watching Diego Costa had his head in his hands. Amid all the smiles and celebration of his return to Atlético, the 28-year-old must harbour at least a tinge of jealousy that it will now be Morata and not him who Hazard is seeking to pick out.
It was vital for Chelsea that Morata hit the ground running this season, following the departure of Costa, and he has done just that in the Premier League and the Champions League.
But it is just as important for Chelsea that Morata quickly develops telepathy with Hazard and there were very encouraging signs in the Wanda Metropolitano stadium that they are already on the same wavelength.
Hazard’s recovery from ankle surgery in the summer delayed the start of their new partnership, but Morata, who spent five seasons at Real Madrid over two spells with Cristiano Ronaldo, already rates the Belgian as one of the top three players in the world.
Asked about his understanding with Hazard, Morata said: “It's not difficult playing with this kind of player. He's one of the three best players in the world. It's easy for me playing with him.”
Having played second fiddle at Real to Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema, Morata is revelling in the fact he is now Chelsea’s first-choice No 9.
“It's the most important thing,” said Morata. “I came to Chelsea because one club and one coach believed in me. Now I have all of these things and I'm very happy.”
There have been signs that Hazard and Morata have become close off the pitch with some cheeky digs at each other.
Following the victory against Leicester City in which Morata scored his third successive headed goal for Chelsea, Hazard joked that his new team-mate needed to prove himself with his feet.
The 24-year-old duly obliged with three goals with his feet against Stoke City, but responded to Hazard’s jibe by patting his head in celebration after nodding in his team-mate’s cross in Madrid.
Conte opted to start with Hazard just behind Morata in a central role against Atletico and the fact the pairing looked so good was even more remarkable given they have not often trained on the same team this season.
When he sets up practice matches, head coach Conte likes to put his starting side up against his bench-warmers and Hazard has largely been with the substitutes up until now.
Conte clearly thinks there are big things to come from Hazard and Morata and, following the victory in Madrid, the Italian said: “We must be very happy because Eden’s performance was amazing. It was the first big game for him after the bad injury and his answer was fantastic, positive. Great link with Álvaro.”
Romelu Lukaku had been Conte’s first-choice summer striker target, but the Belgian’s move to Manchester United forced Chelsea to turn their attention back to Morata who they had attempted to sign 12 months earlier.
Close observers of Hazard believe he links better with Christian Benteke than Lukaku for Belgium and that he is better suited to playing with Morata than United’s number nine, who has scored 10 goals for his new club.
Morata believes he has already learned from an early lesson in English football after he missed a penalty in Chelsea’s Community Shield shootout defeat to Arsenal.
The Spaniard is still stung by the scrutiny the miss earned him by television pundits, but is confident he is now able to take the rough with the smooth.
Asked about his superb start to life at Chelsea, Morata said: “It's unreal. The first official match I made a mistake and I suffered for a few days. The people don’t see the situation, but I grew up, showed my character and now the things are okay and we hope to continue like this.”
Conte has complained that his Chelsea team only have one day to prepare for their crucial game against Premier League leaders Manchester City on Saturday and Morata is believes life will be tougher for him at Stamford Bridge than it was at Real.
“It's always a difficult challenge,” said Morata. “The Premier League is the most competitive league in the world. It's physical and it's the league with the most teams who can win the title. Strong teams. But we're very happy because we're fighting for the Premier League too.”
On facing City, Morata added: “Another big match. It's very important for us before the international break to take the three points.”