Speaking ahead of Chelsea's FA Cup tie against Hull City, manager Antonio Conte discussed the competition between his two strikes Olivier Giroud and Alvaro Morata.

The Spaniard was signed in the summer as a replacement for Diego Costa, while Giroud joined in January to provide balance to the squad after the loan departure of Michy Batshuayi.

Now Conte is hoping the two will help each other produce better performances, by competing for a single spot in the lineup.

"Now he [Giroud] is training with us every day and his physical condition is improving,' Conte reported.

"Tomorrow he will play a part of the game and he will be ready for the game against Barcelona.

"Alvaro is a player with a good responsibility and good maturity. Competition is good for the team. A great team must have competition in every position. For us, Giroud is a good option. He's very strong, he's a powerful player and he can help us for the rest of the season.

"At this moment it's very important to have all your players available. To have two number nines, Morata and Giroud, two options, is very important for us. Remember for a lot of the time we tried to play with Hazard as a number nine.

"In the future, yeah, it could happen [them playing together] if we decide to play with three midfielders, but now it is very soon to answer this question, because we are playing with the system from last season. In this case it would mean Hazard, Pedro and Willian would be out.'