Burnley were unchanged from the weekend, while Moses, Bakayoko, Emerson, Pedro and Rudiger were recalled into the side, and Olivier Giroud got a deserved start after inspiring the comeback win at Southampton on Saturday.
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Following Olivier Giroud’s game-changing, and victor, performance from the bench against Southampton on Sunday, Chelsea manager Antonio Conte started the match with Burnley in an unprecedented way. I tried to help him in the first half and in the second half, he could have scored as well.
It’s been a tough time for Chelsea forward Alvaro Morata, and it’s about to get a whole load tougher than his unbelievable miss against Burnley atr Turf Moor.
“No, honestly”, Conte said.
“I’ve always looked at Southampton this season and thought they were a better team than what the table shows, but they just haven’t scored enough goals”.
When Morata was substituted 15 minutes later, his reaction on the bench suggested a player not completely content.
“I hear that we are already in the final, but if you remember, and I do very well, that five days ago we were 2-0 down against Southampton and we played a disaster against them”, he said.
“He had a chance to score and if you score you change the confidence”.
“For sure, offensively, I think he must be more positive and try to have more one-v-ones, because he has these characteristics”.
Antonio Conte has praised wing-back Emerson Palmieri’s performance for Chelsea against Burnley and has hinted that he could start in the FA Cup semi-final on Sunday.
On playing with two strikers more often, he added: “This is a really good option”.
“Our target was to bring more players into the box because sometimes when we have only one striker we have difficulty to fill the box when we cross”. It could be an option. We surprised [Burnley] with two strikers and they showed [their quality].
“We forced them to play these long balls, but when they played them from their own half of the pitch, it’s less unsafe”.
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Morata missed a one-on-one – replays indicating goalkeeper Nick Pope may have touched the ball wide of the post – and was evidently highly frustrated on his withdrawal, kicking out at the dugout and throwing his boots and shinpads to the ground in disgust.
