Costa should feel privileged not to have been dropped earlier: Mourinho

“For me his behaviour was normal”.

The Chelsea manager joked: “If he wants to hurt me, it’s not with a bib”.

He said: ‘This is what he’s good at, when he’s fighting – I won’t say at his best, but it’s what he’s good at.

Blues boss Jose Mourinho is furious with Costa’s negative reaction after he was dropped from the Chelsea team for Sunday’s game against Tottenham. “We deserved a bit more than we’ve got”. So a number 10 is a very special player I my team. Everyone has been on the bench – the captain [John] Terry, [Branislav] Ivanovic, [Gary] Cahill, [Cesc] Fabregas, Pedro and player of the season [Eden] Hazard.

“When we start losing, we all know it’s not about the one or two players playing badly or playing well”.

Hazard scored 14 times in the Premier League last season as Chelsea won the title, but the team as a whole have only managed 17 goals in their first 14 matches in this campaign.

Costa’s omission meant Hazard was deployed in the central attacking role and responded with what Mourinho described as the Belgian’s best performance so far this season.

“Physically, he is fine”, said the Portuguese. He’s always a positive guy in the team.

Stand-in skipper Ivanovic said: “I expect Diego to come back strongly”.

The Spanish striker was criticised by BT Sport pundits for the lack of commitment he displayed towards his warm-ups.

“But the next game is against Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge and I have to focus on them now, to see how they defended and whether they project their full-backs forward or not”.

After Chelsea’s 0 – 0 draw at Tottenham, Scholes lambasted Costa, saying he is only good at fighting. “I’m convinced at the end of December we’ll be in a different position to where we are now and we will shorten clearly the distance to the top teams”.

But it was Mourinho’s decision to leave Costa on the bench, having clashed with the Spain striker at half-time of the midweek Champions League win at Maccabi Tel Aviv, that drew most attention.

West Ham United are now without a win in four league games following a 1-1 draw at home to West Bromwich Albion. It is a good result, we didn’t have many good chances but Lloris made a good save from me. “We will continue to work hard and continue to take pleasure from our game”.