The Belgian led the line in Sunday’s 0-0 draw against London rivals Tottenham Hotspur after Chelsea boss Joe Mourinho dropped out-of-sorts striker Diego Costa.
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It clearly angered Costa, who did not take part in the pre-match warm-up and tossed his bib toward Mourinho as the game neared its conclusion at White Hart Lane.
“The fact that I want big things, I want to win and I want to win titles and so on is not a question of being humble or not being humble”.
“It was a very good performance by Chelsea, a real Jose Mourinho display”.
“I do not expect to have a player on the bench jumping and shouting because he is not playing”.
“The message to every one of my players – not (just) Diego, to every one of my players – when we play as a team and when, especially, we defend as a team, the team is much better”, Mourinho added. “We tried to play but unfortunately we couldn’t score and the feeling in the changing room is one of disappointment”.
Tottenham also came into the game on the back of a long trip, in the case of Mauricio Pochettino’s team travelling to Azerbaijan to face Qarabag in the Europa League.
Costa has failed to recapture last season’s sparkling form, scoring three goals in 11 league appearances this term. It’s all about the team. “We have a good December waiting for us”.
Costa joined Chelsea from Atletico Madrid in the summer of 2014.
“You aren’t going to make any difference with him, the next time you leave him out he’ll be exactly the same when he’s sitting on the bench – he’s one of those fellas”.
“Everybody was on the bench”.
“I am happy with the team collectively”.
Appropriately enough for this nonsensical season Chelsea are having, what many seem to be calling Hazard’s best game of the season, including Jose Mourinho (!), came in a 0-0 draw.
“I always had a lot of confidence in myself”, said Dembele. “I know to give my all wherever I am on the pitch”, Hazard said.
“We want to finish in the top four and we know it’s hard but we will try”. It was the best Chelsea performance of the season, against a unsafe team.
“We have to feel happy”.
“If we deserve credit for keeping a clean sheet, then I think Tottenham deserves even more credit because we were the more unsafe team”, he said.
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Given the club’s disastrous start to the season, more dropped points is simply catastrophic.
