“Our fans were fantastic today and they pushed a lot the team in every moment of the game,” said Conte, whose side follow their trip to Spain with a home game against Manchester City next weekend. “In this stadium the crowd push a lot and I want to thank our fans because I repeat they helped a lot the team today. It was great also to change it (the song). I am also pleased about this.
“I think Alvaro performed very well. He scored a hat-trick and for our strikers it’s very important. It means we created chances for our strikers to take, but I am pleased for his performance and I’m pleased for the performance of the team.”
Morata had previously asked Chelsea’s fans not to sing the song about him and they responded by dreaming up a different chant in his honour. He opened the scoring after just 81 seconds and added two more goals in the second half after Pedro had punished Darren Fletcher’s error to make it 2-0.
“It’s not easy to win away against Stoke. This game is always difficult,” added Conte, whose side trail leaders Manchester City and Manchester United by three points. “I remember very well last season when we struggled a lot to win and we also won at the end of the game. Today we started very well and then we started to suffer and it was important not to lose our composure, to always stay in the game. In the second half we scored two goals and created many chances to improve the final result. The final result was 4-0, but I think that it was a difficult game.”
Conte confirmed goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois had suffered no ill-effects from a heavy landing on his neck during the second half and will be fit to face his former club Atletico.