Conte brought on Batshuayi in place of Oscar with Chelsea trailing 1-0 to Watford at Vicarage Road on Saturday, and the Belgium striker made an nearly immediate impact in the 80th minute when he followed up Eden Hazard’s low shot to score his first Premier League goal and level the score.
Advertisement
Conte was once again animated on the touchline as Chelsea staged their comeback following Etienne Capoue’s strike for Watford, with Batshuayi scoring from the bench and another substitute, Cesc Fabregas, playing Costa in behind for the victor.
Asked about the impact of his replacements, Conte said: “Good impact”.
Batshuayi came on and scored the equaliser after Conte had switched to a 4-2-4 system, which saw the Belgian play up front with Costa, flanked by Eden Hazard and Victor Moses.
“It’s important because I want to see this, all the players show me that they deserve to start the game and if they show the right commitment I’m a very happy manager”. The manager must choose the starting XI and then try to find the right solution during the game. “Bad or good but I prefer to tell the truth because when the football is finished and I face the player in other situations it is important to be able to look them in the eye”.
“It’s always hard to come back when they score but we did great”. It’s just the start of the season, but if we want to stay at the top we have to win.
Notably, the one player who was obviously on the same wavelength, even before Conte himself, was Diego Costa, who followed Batshuayi’s shot into the net to grab the ball and start running it back to the center circle.
“I’m pleased for the substitutes that came off the bench”, Conte said.
And the Italian admits he will struggle to sleep after blaming his own side for gifting Chelsea their goals. When you play so well and don’t manage to get any points, it leaves you unhappy.
“Like we say in Italy, we complicated our own life”. Both goals were from our mistakes.
“They are going to help us improve”.
Advertisement
Most of this we’ve heard before but it’s that first sentence that’s key. Both Manchester teams won, so we had to win and we did.
