Costa left out of Chelsea squad

Chelsea’s last visit to King Power Stadium in November 2015 ended in a 2-1 loss that led to Jose Mourinho’s firing and helped Leicester win the title.

Chelsea’s medical staff “are not convinced” by Costa’s complaints however, and Conte is backing their stance.

“This is the truth”.

Of course Costa will also be unavailable after it was reported late on Friday night that he had been dropped from the squad. This is the reason, this is the truth. He is a top, top player, but if he wants to go to China and be bored 18 hours a day, good luck to him. But I repeat – if. “The club hasn’t told me about this, we don’t know anything about this”. The club haven’t told me about this.

Wing-back Marcos Alonso scored early in each half to give Chelsea control of the game, and the clinching third goal came from the more likely source of former Barcelona star Pedro.

Michy Batshuayi, a player Conte seems to have previous little faith in at this moment in time, and 19-year-old academy graduate Dominic Solanke are the only other recognised strikers in the first-team squad. It is always hard – I don’t have his pain. “In the second half, you could see we could create chances”.

“The Leicester game is very important for us to restart to win”. “We are blessed to have talent like that, and if someone is missing someone comes in and produces a performance like that”. I have replied in all ways and trust me this is the truth.

He added: “There are lot of “if” questions – I don’t like to answer these types of questions”. With N’Golo we played with 12 players and the referee never counted!

“You might say that I have the key to unlocking players’ minds, though not all of them”.

The Italian was named the Best FIFA Men’s Coach of 2016, after leading his club to a remarkable Premier League title success. “The mentality is right, this team is used to fighting”, he said. “These players know how to fight”.

Asked if he expected Costa to be available for the Hull game at Stamford Bridge on January 22, the Italian said: “We start next week on Tuesday and we will see”.

“Because I like to tell the truth and not lie”. He has been forced to train on his own for much of last week because of doubts over his fitness and commitment. I don’t know what surprised me the most.