Tottenham Hotspur boss Mauricio Pochettino sweating

The striker was named on the substitutes’ bench for Sunday’s goalless draw against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane.

“I’ve had it with players, leaving them out and suddenly they want to go home”.

“I think Diego is privileged because he is last one on the bench”. Everyone else has been: the captain (John Terry), (Branislav) Ivanovic, (Gary) Cahill, the vice-captain of England, (Cesc) Fabregas, Pedro, (Eden) Hazard, player of the season, Oscar; everyone was on the bench.

“I think Chelsea played one of their best games of the season and I think always when you show the effort and maturity that we showed today I think you can be very happy with your players”.

“I am more than happy with the performance”, he said.

The Blues have now kept two EPL clean sheets in November following their 1-0 win over Norwich last weekend, not forgetting their 4-0 win over Maccabi Tel-Aviv in midweek’s UCL game. The Spurs boss said the 24-year-old star will have a scan to address the problem, having already spent time on the sidelines earlier this season with another injury. He is working well every day and his mood is positive. “What happens next is up to him, but if he is not playing well, then he will stay on the bench”.

The Chelsea manager said before the game that his out-of-sorts Spanish striker was lacking confidence and Costa certainly did not look a happy soul when, late on, he realised he was not going to be brought on as a substitute.

The point left the reigning champions languishing in the bottom half of the table, while Tottenham – now unbeaten in 13 league games – were left frustrated after failing to take a chance to put pressure on the top four.

“But Mourinho is the manager and now Costa knows he will be tough with him too. We enjoyed playing together”. “We want to finish in the top four and we know it’s hard but we will try”. I’d be shocked if Jose didn’t get him back in the side and give him a bit of a slap on the wrists.

Cascarino has played that incident down and expects Costa to feature against Bournemouth on Saturday. “A lovely save, the game could have been a win for us if that goes in”.

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