Antonio Conte Conte lays down the gauntlet to Chelsea hat-trick hero Alvaro Morata

Antonio Conte, the Chelsea manager, has challenged goal-happy Alvaro Morata to become one of the world’s top strikers after his devastating hat-trick ripped the heart out of Stoke on Saturday.

Morata, a £57 million summer signing from Real Madrid after Chelsea lost out in the race for Romelu Lukaku, has proved an instant hit at the Stamford Bridge club after hitting six goals in as many league matches.

And he certainly had an immediate effect in the Potteries where he opened the scoring after just 80 seconds, relentlessly tortured Stoke’s makeshift rearguard and completed his hat-trick with two further goals in four minutes late on.

Morata made 63 league appearances across five seasons at Real Madrid, scoring 25 goals. From the same number of games at Juventus, he struck 15 times. Now his game appears ideally suited to Conte’s Chelsea blueprint.

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“Alvaro didn’t play a lot with Juventus and Real Madrid but now he has a great chance to show that he is a fantastic striker. He is very young, only 24, and he is very important for Chelsea,” Conte said.

“He is involved totally in our style of football and our ideas and he is very strong. You could see today a lot of good contact and tackles and I think he is showing that he is a really good, complete player.”

There was also praise from Stoke manager Mark Hughes, himself a former striker of considerable repute.

“He is clearly an outstanding player. It is early days for him but he is affecting games in the way you would hope from a top-level striker, which he clearly is,” he said.

“The way Chelsea play, they allow you to come on to them, to an extent, then hit you on the break. He looks like a player who understands that role. He’s played in Italy so he is always waiting for those little moments to join in. He looks a very intelligent player.”

Morata returns to Madrid on Wednesday when Chelsea face Atletico in an intriguing Champions League group match. Chelsea’s volatile relationship with Morata’s predecessor, Diego Costa, ended last week with a deal for the Spaniard to return to Atletico.

Reports that Atletico plan to parade Costa in front of their supporters before Wednesday’s match will only add to a sense of hangover for their English visitors.

“Diego was an under-rated striker in England. People put too much attention on him being a little bully on the field rather than looking at his quality,” said Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who was at Atletico with Costa between 2011-14.

“He is one of the nicest, funniest guys I know but we have bought a new striker and he is doing well so we have to move on. As a friend I will miss him but Alvaro is doing his job and we are happy.”

Stoke had shone in previous home games with Arsenal and Manchester United but it was a completely different matter against a Chelsea side who ruthlessly punished the home side’s errors and eased to victory in impressive manner.

“You go behind so early and give yourselves a mountain to climb,” said Stoke midfielder Joe Allen. “The second goal made it extra difficult. We created a few chances but not too many complaints.”

Without the injured Ryan Shawcross, Geoff Cameron and  Kevin Wimmer, and ineligible Chelsea loanee Kurt Zouma, Stoke’s makeshift three-man central defence never recovered from the moment Morata arrowed on to Cesar Azpilicueta’s through ball.

“If we had our best side out the game would have been a lot closer than 4-0,” lamented Hughes.