Chelsea tactician Maurizio Sarri will have to make a crucial decision between Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud when the Blues visit West Ham on Sunday. Chelsea have currently won five of their opening league games, but the fixture might be kind to them as West Ham have not been in top notch form since the opening day of the season. The Hammers however, will be buoyed by their recent victory over Everton last weekend.
Chelsea despite being superb form, have relied on attacker Eden Hazard, who is their current high goal scorer in the current season. The Belgian netted a hat-trick list week as the Blue trashed Cardiff city 4-1.
The Blues however, have lacked goal from the major goal scoring department with Alvaro Morata misfiring while Olivier Giroud not showing consistency, and this would like pose a problem for Sarri. Giroud had his first start of the new football season last weekend, and notched in two assist which earned him praise from Eden Hazard.
“Olivier’s a target man, maybe the best in the world — I think so,” said Hazard, appearing to make it clear who he would prefer to see in the line-up. “When he gets the ball he can hold the ball and we can go in deep with him, so for us it’s a pleasure to play with him. “When Alvaro (Morata) was playing its completely different, he’s a different player than Olivier, but they both have great qualities, so I’m happy to have good strikers in the team”.
Morata has been subject to criticism for his killer touch following his bright start to his Chelsea career. The Spaniard has netted only once in the current league season. Sarri in his post-match conference following Chelsea’s 1-0 triumph over Paok admitted that the Spaniard needed to boost his confidence. “Alvaro has to gain confidence with one, two, three goals,” Sarri said after the victory, during which Morata missed a number of chances.
Giroud however is yet to score for the Blues, but believes that his competition with the Spaniard is healthy for the club.
“It has always been a fair competition between us and we will both try to step up to help the team reach our target,” he told London’s Evening Standard. “I’m happy to have a teammate like that, who pushes me to do better,” he added. “It’s positive for both of us. I want to play as many games as I can and try to be as efficient as I can for the team”.