Diego Costa finally out the door, now the hard work really starts for 'polite' Alvaro Morata

Antonio Conte will be expecting the Spaniard to bring a certain fight and edge to Chelsea's game now that Costa has returned to Madrid


Alvaro Morata in training with his Chelsea teammates earlier this week Getty
If Antonio Conte was unwilling to discuss Diego Costa and everything that was problematic with him off the pitch, even now that the striker’s Chelsea exit has been confirmed, he was only too willing to gush about his replacement - and especially what Alvaro Morata himself is like off the pitch, to the point he paid him a rather strong personal compliment.

“He’s a really good guy,” the manager said. “It means if you have a daughter, you’d be open to have this type of person with your daughter, to marry your daughter, a really good guy, a polite person…”

But that also raises a question, that is partially fired by Morata’s effective but conspicuously clean performances so far, and Conte’s other description of him as a “polite player”. Should a striker be so polite? Does the 24-year-old need a bit more anger in his game, a bit more of Costa?


Goals, gamesmanship and golf carts: Why Chelsea will miss Costa
It’s certainly difficult to imagine Morata so mischievously looking to get opponents into trouble in the way his predecessor did, just as it’s hard to imagine him seeing one of the Chelsea staff’s golf-style buggies unattended and driving it into a ditch - in the way Costa did.

Conte doesn’t exactly wanting him doing the latter, but he does admit that the former is one specific reason why this is “the right moment” to be bringing Morata to Chelsea at 24. It is something the manager can work on to add to his game, to give him that fire.