Diego Costa throws his bib at Jose Mourinho

“The message to every one of my players – not (just) Diego, to every one of my players – is when we play as a team and when, especially, we defend as a team, the team is much better”, the Chelsea manager said.

Costa started on the bench for the Blues’ clash against Tottenham and, upon realising he would not be brought on, reacted by angrily tossing his bib towards Jose Mourinho. I think it’s also normal.

“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. I have a good relationship with him”.

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 very privileged because he was the last one to be (put) on the bench”.

Current Chelsea Player of the Season Eden hazard says he is not concerned by his lack of goals, and is confident he will return to his best soon. Today we thought the best strategy was this one.

“With a system of two midfield players and one number 10, I demand a lot from a number 10”.

“Diego is physically fine, no problems”, he said. He’s -always a positive guy in the team. We are more confident and we are more of a group.

“I think the team spirit is back and we are all again on the right track and want to do everything to try and get points back”. But did that leave them any worse-off than they have looked in recent weeks: with Costa being driven out wide, hanging back on the edge of a box, and contributing nothing but attitude to the game? “We deserved more, we tried to win it”, said Tottenham manager Maurico Pochettino after his side extended their unbeaten run to 13 games – a club record in the Premier League era. “We have to be realistic and go game by game to get the points”. “We showed good performances in the last few games, and I’m happy, but we have to keep working hard”. So we are really happy with how it’s going.

Mauricio Pochettino has stated that Tottenham felt they were playing against a small team after the draw with Chelsea.