The Belgium global came off the bench to help set up Diego Costa’s winning strike against West Ham, and also started Chelsea’s 2-1 comeback win against Watford by scoring the equaliser – his first goal for the club.
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The Blues were heading for a shock defeat until Michy Batshuayi came off the bench to equalise and Cesc Fabregas produced a superb assist for Diego Costa’s victor.
The Blues travel to Vicarage Road off the back of a 2-1 win over West Ham in Conte’s first competitive game in charge. “A good impact from the subs and I’m pleased, for this shows great spirit”, he said. “Im pleased to see the reaction from my players and this win is very important for us as it gives everyone confidence”.
On whether he has spoken to Costa about the topic, Conte added: “Yes, I try to speak to all my players – all together and individually and its important to have relations”.
A record of 26 goals in 62 appearances for Marseille saw him attract the attention of Chelsea, who will be hoping the forward can achieve similar figures this season as they look to return to the summit of English football.
But Conte won the battle in the end, even if a draw might have been a fairer result on the balance of play.
“When you lose you deserve to lose, it is something we will earn from, we had the level and showed we can compete with the big teams, we need to work more on those small details”.
“We can hold our heads high”, Mazzarri said.
“I don’t want to buy just to buy, I want to buy the right player for Chelsea, for the present, for the future, with a good prospect”.
“But in Italy we d say that we complicated our own lives”. Once again it was Diego Costa who had prompted them with the decisive goal, racing away onto a pass from Cesc Fabregas, who has lost his place but came on to set up both goals.
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“I’m very disappointed. At the moment, what counts is we have grown as a team and improved compared to last week”.
