A frustrated Costa walks to the bench, throws his training bib towards Mourinho and sits on the bench.
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But Blues boss Mourinho said: “For me his behaviour is normal. A top player on the bench will not be happy”, Mourinho is quoted as saying by the BBC.
Mourinho said: “If he wants to hurt me, it’s not with a bib”.
“If I had scored then it would have been 1-0 and it could have been a win for us”. When I decided not to play him, he went (back to the bench).
Afterwards the Portuguese claimed that they sorted out the disagreement with “a few kisses and a few cuddles” during the break but in the next match Costa was on Chelsea’s bench for the first time this season.
“The captain has been on the bench, so have Ivanovic, Cahill the vice-captain of England, Fabregas, Pedro, Oscar, Hazard the player of the season, so he is privileged I kept him in the team for all these matches”.
With performances improving and confidence on the rise Mourinho claimed,”I would not be surprised if we don’t lose one of the next 10 games.” a quote that most Chelsea fans will be hoping plays out to be true, as Chelsea fight to gain a top four finish.
They have a favourable run of matches up until the visit of Arsenal in mid-January and if more good news were needed the returns of midfielder Jordan Henderson and Daniel Sturridge after long absences will add more strength in depth at a particularly busy time.
Mourinho, though, has downplayed any apparent bad blood between himself and the forward, insisting that the decision to leave Costa out was purely tactical.
“Diego is physically fine, no problems”, he said.
“I expect him to come back strongly”.
“I was tempted to go the 90 minutes with the same players”.
FC’s Shaka Hislop doesn’t think Chelsea played all that well against Tottenham, even though Spurs are a strong side. “We have a good December waiting for us”.
Chelsea star man Eden Hazard had the best chance to nick all three points for his side in a torpid second half, but his brilliant Paolo di Canio-like volley at the far post from Branislav Ivanovic’s deep cross was well saved by Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
“When results don’t follow, you always try to nit pick”, he said.
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“They did not do much to win the game”. We need to keep working hard because there’s only been 14 games and today it’s too early to talk about the end of the season.
