Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri backs Alvaro Morata despite impressive Olivier Giroud cameo against Bournemouth

CHELSEA boss Maurizio Sarri admitted that Alvaro Morata "needs more space" to get firing for the Blues.

The Spanish striker was hauled off after just an hour in the 2-0 win against Bournemouth after barely offering a threat.

His replacement, Olivier Giroud, provided the assist for Pedro's opener and Chelsea looked much more threatening after his introduction - in fact Giroud had the same number of touches as Morata did in half the time.

Sarri was asked if Morata or Giroud would be the man to lead the line in the coming weeks.

He said: "It depends on the situation. We are crossing the ball three, four, five times in three minutes.

"I think that Giroud in that moment was better.

"Morata is improving. Maybe he needs more space.

"But I'm lucky because in this situation Olivier Giroud is very useful."

Chelsea have now won their opening four games in a row - four out of the five times they've done that the Blues have gone on to win the title.

But Sarri does not see that as a potential omen for this season.

"For us it is better to think of the next match," he added.

"The gap [last season] was 30 points. It's difficult to recover this gap in one season."

The Italian also hailed Marcos Alonso as one of the best attacking full-backs in world football right now - with defensive improvement the only thing from stopping him from being the very best around.