When pressed on if there was a problem with his striker, Mourinho again made light of the issue, suggesting Costa would have thrown something other than a bib if he wanted to hurt him.
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“I learned how to live without the happiness of winning matches”, he said. But, after the player’s angry clash with José Mourinho on the stroke of half-time during the Champions League match in Haifa last Tuesday, they will monitor his attitude closely in training to be sure he is in the right frame of mind to return to the starting lineup.
Jose Mourinho dropped his disgruntled main striker Diego Costa for Chelsea’s Premier League visit to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday (Monday NZ time) but the champions still proved toothless up front as they ground out an undistinguished goalless draw at White Hart Lane.
“I think Diego is privileged because he is last one on the bench”.
Both Kenedy and Ruben Loftus-Cheek got beckoned from the bench to the pitch yet Costa, who has only got four goals to his name this season, was seemingly forgotten about.
Ivanovic, Chelsea’s captain in the injury-enforced absence of John Terry, believes Costa will react to his omission from the team in a positive way.
“Chelsea played one of their best games of the season, and I think that when you make the effort we showed today – and the maturity – you have to be happy with the players”.
“Us, the players, are not happy either”.
“If we’d scored a goal, we’d have won”, said Mourinho, whose team have now gone three games without defeat.
Hazard’s work-rate was criticised by Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho earlier in the season, but the Belgian has been a willing runner for the team in recent weeks.
Tottenham started the first half brightly, with Harry Kane forcing an awkward save from Chelsea goalkeeper Asmir Begovic from a snapshot from the edge of the area following good link-up play with Christian Eriksen. “He is privileged I kept him in the team so long”.
“I’m convinced that, by the end of December, we’ll be in a different position to now and we’ll have shortened the difference to the top teams”. Operated mainly in Eric Dier’s territory and didn’t find it easy to shake off the Spurs man. Worked hard though, supported Eden Hazard well and always looked to create.
“We did a good job and tried to score”.
“We have to feel happy”.
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“We have to win if we want to finish in the top four”, said Hazard, who only came close in the first half with an off-target header.
