Conte hails Chelsea´s ´desire to fight´ for Watford comeback

Antonio Conte hailed his Chelsea players for showing a “desire to fight” as they battled back to win a six-goal thriller against Watford.

The Premier League champions scored three times in the final 20 minutes to claim only a second victory in five league games and move above Watford into fourth in the table, triumphing 4-2.

Pedro’s early opener was overturned by Abdoulaye Doucoure and Ricardo Pereyra, but substitute Michy Batshuayi netted twice either side of a Cesar Azpilicueta header to snatch the points for his side.

Conte was delighted with the effort shown by his team in the wake of back-to-back top-flight defeats and a failure to hold on to a lead against Roma in the Champions League in midweek.

“I think it was a good performance,” he told Sky Sports. “It’s not simple to concede at the last minute of the first half and then go down at the start of the second half. I think, at the moment, our confidence was low.

“But my players showed me great desire to fight, to change the situation and the final result. We are facing a difficult situation but the spirit is right. Now we will try to recover quickly.

“We played against a team in a good moment of form. They were above us in the table. To come back for this result is not simple; we’ve played three games in seven days.”

6 – Michy Batshuayi has scored six goals in his last nine @premierleague apps, after netting just once in his previous 17. Progress. pic.twitter.com/UMermZGKq9

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) October 21, 2017

Conte hopes Batshuayi will gain some confidence from his match-winning cameo but insists the result is what matters.

“I tried to manage the situation,” he said of the decision to bring on the Belgian in place of Alvaro Morata. “We had to change something, but don’t forget Alvaro played two days ago and he’s coming back from an injury.

“His commitment was good but for sure he has to find good form after the injury. But it was good to play in this game and good for Michy to score two goals.

“It’s always important to think of the team, not himself or myself. The two goals were very important for the team, and for sure for the confidence of the striker.

“He has to continue to work in this way and to show that he deserves to play.”