José Mourinho hails support of ‘amazing’ Chelsea fans

The former Arsenal skipper played an instrumental part in delivering Mourinho’s third title at Stamford Bridge past year, but the Portuguese says he is not alone in underperforming this term.

Mourinho himself has been the subject of intense scrutiny, with Chelsea languishing a lowly 14th in the Premier League table, just two points above the relegation zone.

A move back to Atletico had been mooted, but Cerezo has to dismissed speculation that the 27-year-old is set to depart for the Calderon in January, despite Costa suggesting he would be open to a move back to Madrid.

That simply isn’t good enough for Mourinho or his squad, even despite their achievement in securing their place in the Champions League knockout stages with their win over Porto on Wednesday night.

Speaking to the media on Friday, as reported by ESPN, Mourinho explained that he was pleased with the midfielder’s mentality as he remains unafraid of trying to inspire the team to gain better results.

“I know maybe you come back immediately with Diego and Hazard, they are not scoring goals, but the way they played against Porto they have to score goals”. The manager has been fighting and encouraging us to turn this around. I feel embarrassed because I don’t know how to react.

Brazil global Luis also struggled at Chelsea but returned to Spain in the summer in a £16m deal. Although a lot will be learned about Leicester City over the coming weeks, their success thus far this season cannot be dismissed, and it seems entirely possible that they could find themselves in the top four at the end of the season. There is still a long way to go but we will give it our best. “Because it’s not normal what they say”, Costa added.

“But if I were happy with that it would be very ungrateful”.