It clearly angered the striker, who did not take part in the pre-match warm-up and tossed his bib towards Mourinho as the game neared its conclusion.
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Chelsea’s draw with Tottenham on Sunday provided little in the way of on-field highlights, and despite not making it onto the pitch, Diego Costa has come in for a lot of attention.
Mourinho was happy with a much-improved display and had a message for his team. “We start the season as a team and we have to finish as a team”, said Ivanovic. “I have a good relationship with him”, Mourinho told reporters in his post match press conference.
“He scored against Norwich – the winning goal”.
“Diego is physically fine, no problems”. His mood is positive. “I was not expecting to have a player on the bench jumping and singing because he is not playing”.
“I just want them to be mentally ready to play when I need them, and during the second half when I felt like I could eventually use one of them they went to warm up and he was ready to play”.
“The debate is down to my productivity this season, which is not as good… well really nowhere near as good as last season. And probably he is eating while waiting for us in the bus”.
“I think Diego is very privileged because he was the last one to be (put) on the bench”. Mourhino said Hazard had “his best game of the season” against Spurs and hailed the return of the Belgian’s “appetite” after one of his most encouraging performances where he went close to giving his side the lead in either half.
ESPN FC’s Steve Nicol believes that Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho must punish Costa in some way to maintain order at the club.
“We know he’s a very good centre-forward, he’s at his best when he’s fighting, when he’s arguing, when he’s kicking, but when he’s not scoring goals with that, it stands out”, Scholes said before he game. Not easy. We’re the youngest team in the Premier League and the maturity we showed today we have shown in different games.
“If our team deserve credit for a clean sheet and I think we do, Tottenham deserve even more credit for keeping one because we were the more unsafe team, we had the best chances, and Lloris was the goalkeeper with the more work and the save of the game”.
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Yet it is Arsenal sitting fourth in the Premier League – only two points behind front-runners Manchester City and Leicester – and Chelsea is 12 points further back in 14th place.
