Antonio Conte given decision to make over struggling Alvaro Morata

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Chelsea have lost their spark. The Premier League champions have played three matches since the turn of the year and won none, with their lack of ferocity owing much to the poor form of club-record signing Alvaro Morata. He started the season on flames, but has now scored just two goals in his last nine appearances and is beginning to conjure memories of the many mediocre players that have worn the No.9 shirt for the Blues since Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink departed. In Wednesday’s Carabao Cup clash against Arsenal, he looked horribly out of sorts. His performance was a smorgasbord of misplaced passes, loose touches and confidence-deprived finishing. No player, including the two goalkeepers, had worse passing accuracy on the night than Morata’s 47%. He was swallowed up by Arsenal’s three centre-backs, bullied especially by Shkodran Mustafi, and struggled to connect with wingman Eden Hazard.

For many Chelsea fans, the biggest concern will be his lack of physicality and presence. Didier Drogba and Diego Costa had plenty of barren spells during their own time spearheading the Chelsea attack, but they never appeared as passive and meek as Morata, whose shoulders hunched and his head sunk lower as the game against Arsenal wore on. Antonio Conte could frequently be heard barking orders at him from the touchline. At the Emirates last week, he managed to miss three clear-cut chances – the only time this season a player has been so wasteful in a single game. Even in the five-goal thumping of Stoke City, he still did not get on the score sheet. Of the main strikers at the top six Premier League clubs, only Alexandre Lacazette has a worse big-chance conversion rate than Morata, while his shooting accuracy is down compared to Costa’s last season too.

The biggest issue for the Spaniard though – and something that has been pointed out by Conte – is that Morata has always served as more of a relief pitcher than the main man at his previous clubs. He was backup to Karim Benzema at the Bernabeu, and understudy to Carlos Tevez in Turin. ‘Don’t forget,’ warned Conte, ‘for Alvaro this is the first time he’s played regularly because he didn’t play regularly with Juventus or Real Madrid.’ Never has Morata had to carry the goalscoring burden as much as he does at Chelsea, nor has he endured English football’s gruelling winter schedule before. But, equally, it is an issue that Conte himself has contributed to.

Since Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink left in 2004, these players have all worn the No.9 shirt at Chelsea… Mateja Kezman, Hernan Crespo, Khalid Boulahrouz, Steve Sidwell, Franco Di Santo, Fernando Torres, Radamel Falcao and Alvaro Morata. Excluding Morata, they combined to score just 45 Premier League goals in 230 outings. Morata already has 10 in 19. Against an injury-hit Arsenal team, the Italian persisted with his new 3-5-1-1 formation and left both Willian and Pedro on the bench. Some opposition fans have cynically reduced Chelsea’s tactics to simply passing the ball to Hazard and hoping for the best, and while that is quite a leap, Conte has certainly tweaked his team to revolve almost exclusively around the Belgian – for better and worse. Hazard plays a much freer and more advanced role now, his defensive responsibilities have been reduced, and Conte’s search for balance at the start of the season has seen him add an extra body in midfield. As a consequence of that tweak, Hazard has had spells of being utterly unplayable, while a defence that kept three clean sheets in their first nine league games has recorded eight in the subsequent 13 matches.

Chelsea’s defence has improved, but the venom in attack has been diluted. Of the big six teams at the top of the table, only Arsenal have scored fewer goals. Lacazette is going through his own crisis in confidence, having not scored in his last seven games, and like Morata seems to be struggling with the never-ending intensity and fixture-packed schedule of the Premier League. Neither player lasted 90 minutes on Wednesday, with Lacazette going the distance just four times all season. Weirdly, Chelsea are actually taking more shots per game this season than last (up from 15.3 to 16.5) but are scoring less often (down from 2.24 goals per game to 1.86). While Morata’s finishing has not helped, the entire Chelsea team are suffering – their conversion rate across the board has fallen by 3.4% – and the quality of chances being produced has dropped according to Expected Goals. En route to the title last season, they probably scored more goals than their play often merited.

This leaves Conte at a crossroads and with a major tactical decision to make. He seems happy with his team’s performances: ‘We created chances to score. I think we are not so clinical, and despite shooting 21 times [against Arsenal] we didn’t score. We have to reflect on this stat.’ But the current formation is patently not getting the best out of Morata. If he cannot trust Michy Batshuayi to share the load, then he must offer Morata more support. Too often Conte’s caution has left the Spaniard isolated, with only Hazard to link up with, while Chelsea’s raw shooting stats disguise how non-threatening many of the efforts were against Arsenal. When Morata receives the ball, there are so few options around him, and no runners beyond him. If Hazard is shackled, and with teams having figured out his understanding with Cesar Azpilicueta, the onus is now on Conte to throw a little more caution to the wind.

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