David Luiz believes Chelsea are proving they have the quality to compete on all fronts. Chelsea extended their unbeaten run to 14 games with an impressive victory at Burnley yesterday.
Maurizio Sarri’s side won despite being without Eden Hazard, who had a back injury, and Pedro having to go off early with a stomach complaint.
It was the latest test the Blues have passed this term. Chelsea have coped with an intense fixture schedule caused by playing in the Europa League and Carabao Cup and Sarri’s new tactics after arriving in July.
Luiz said: “We try to do our best and answer every question thrown at us. Are we handling playing in so many competitions? Yes.
“On Thursday (in the Europa League) it was almost another team playing but with the same mentality.During the season, everyone has to be ready to play.”
Chelsea’s early-season form has been largely attributed to the displays of Hazard, who is their top scorer with eight goals. However, Sarri’s men achieved their biggest win of the campaign without the Belgian.
Luiz said: “We have many talented players here, not just Eden. Even when we lost Pedro, in came Ruben. This is a big club and at a big club you need 18 or 19 players ready to play and we have more than 20.”
One of the players making more of an impact is Alvaro Morata, who has scored three goals in his last four Blues appearances.
Luiz said: “Alvaro is a great player. Sometimes when the strikers don’t score and the pressure comes on them they love that. We just say to him to keep doing what you are doing and goals will come.”
Maurizio Sarri could be tempted to rest Hazard, who has already played 11 times this season but did sit out the wins over BATE Borisov and Burnley last week with a back problem.