Alvaro Morata glum scorer and Ruben Loftus-Cheek disappoints after England axe

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Chelsea finally broke the deadlock against the stubborn Hungarians. And he wasn’t the only unhappy looking Blue on the night – with Alvaro Morata giving the impression of being far from impressed at scoring the winner.

Only the second goal of the season for struggling Morata was enough to keep the Blues top of Group L on a 100 per cent record in Europe so far. But Loftus-Cheek’s ongoing struggles to convince Sarri that he deserves more game time overshadowed a below par performance. This was his first start since January 2017 and he is still waiting to complete 90 minutes since then and despite a decent performance still has work to do on his new manager.

He was heavily involved throughout his 66 minutes on duty. So much so that he was forced off to change shirts in the first half when his was ripped from too much close attention. He was also dragged down in the box in the first half with a decent shout for a penalty only to be denied by the referee on a frustrating night on many levels for Chelsea.

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Sarri claimed after last week’s 1-1 Premier League draw that his team is closer to Liverpool than he first thought. However, they are also not as far from Hungary as he may like. Despite overwhelming domination in terms of possession and chances, Sarri’s side failed to cash in the first half and were almost embarrassed by the visitors’ from Budapest a number of times.

In particular, tenacious midfielder Loic Nego was dogged in defence and slippery up front, coming close to giving his side a shock lead. The Frenchman, who played one game for Charlton four years ago, got the better of Gary Cahill and Emerson Palmieri and almost scored both times.

Sarri made eight changes from last weekend when a packed Stamford Bridge played host to a sell-out crowd for the biggest game of the new manager’s reign and a thriller against title rivals Liverpool.

One of those back in was Morata. After more than a year at the club he is still to convince anybody that he has the presence and physical attributes to command the goal area and score goals regularly.

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He scored one but missed two sitters last night. The first after 16 minutes when put through by a smart, threaded ball from Pedro into the box. With only the keeper to beat he managed to wedge his right boot under the ball and scuff the shot high and wide of the mark from eight yards.

Eleven minutes later, Willian chipped the wall with a clever free kick but again Morata lacked the strength to see it through and tumbled over as he shot – claiming a foul and a penalty.

Curious that Morata is in the Spain squad ahead of former Chelsea favourite Diego Costa and could face England the week after next.

He finally broke the deadlock with 20 minutes left when Cesc Fabregas chipped a ball into the box for Willian to head on and Morata finally stayed on his feet to poke the ball home from six yards out.

 

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