Thibaut Courtois: Chelsea signing Michy Batshuayi is making it hard for Antonio Conte to leave him out

1/6
Simon Johnson22 August 2016

Michy Batshuayi's impressive start at Chelsea means Antonio Conte will have trouble leaving the striker on the bench, according to goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.

Summer signing Batshuayi, who joined from Marseille for £33.1m, has played a key role in ensuring the club have a 100 per cent Premier League record this season.

The Belgium international 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.

Courtois told Standard Sport: "It's very good for him, I'm happy for him. Obviously he has to have a bit of patience with a top striker like Diego in front of him.

"But if he comes on and keeps making the difference like this, he makes it hard for the coach [to leave him out].

"Each time he came on he's been sharp, he was there in the right place and was a real danger.

"He scored against Watford but hit the crossbar as well - it's a sign that he's ready and he wants to score, that he can be in the first XI as well."

Willian missed the match with a minor calf problem, but revealed afterwards that he could face Bristol Rovers in the League Cup tomorrow night.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in