Alvaro Morata speaks to Diego Costa "a lot" after replacing him at Chelsea and has expressed disappointment at his start to life at Stamford Bridge.
The striker arrived during the summer for a club-record deal worth an initial £58million after Antonio Conte decided Costa was surplus to requirements for the defence of their Premier League title.
Costa has since secured a return to Atletico Madrid, though will not be able to play until the club can register new players in January, while Morata has scored eight goals in 13 games for the Blues.
"People remember him there," Morata said of Costa to AS. "I speak to him quite a lot. There was a chance that we might have played together but in the end that didn't happen."
Morata most recently ended a six-game barren scoring run with a fine header for the only goal in Sunday's 1-0 win over Manchester United, the fifth time Cesar Azplicueta has assisted the striker this season.
He continued: "We've started [the season] well but not everything has gone as we would have liked. We've slipped up in a couple of games and we can't afford to do that - you get punished for the smallest mistake in England.
"Only a while ago we were quite far behind United and City... but we beat United just before the international break and we are only one point off second place. We're hoping City drop points at some point but they're playing really well.
"[Azpilicueta] is amazing. We understand each other well and at Chelsea, the service we get off the full-backs works well. I'm very grateful to Cesar."
