Antonio Conte wants Michy Batshuayi to prove his worth

Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has stressed that Michy Batshuayi must take his chances in order to be deserving of regular first-team football.

The Belgium internaational has managed just five starts across all competitions, and he is due to make his sixth when the Blues host Bournemouth in the League Cup quarter-final.

Batshuayi has found himself behind Alvaro Morata in the pecking order for the first-half of the season, and there have been times where the Belgian has been ignored in the Spaniard's injury absence.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Conte said that Batshuayi must prove that he is better than the likes of Morata and Eden Hazard to warrant a regular starting spot.

He said, via ESPN: "He has to show me that he's better than Morata, or than [Eden] Hazard. It's very simple. Michy is coming from an injury. Don't forget this. Michy stopped for maybe two weeks, 18 days, and then he needed to work."

Conte is likely to make a few changes to his lineup for the Cherries game, but the Italian could pretty much go with his senior players in the central defensive department where they are short of first-team options.

The Blues come into the game having won eight of their last nine matches, with their only setback resulting from a 1-0 league defeat against West Ham United at the London Stadium.