Eden Hazard at striker isn’t the way forward for Chelsea

The striker, who had previously been selected when fit, was an unused substitute on Sunday despite the champions not having another centre-forward in their squad.

The Spain global failed to warm up until told to late in the game, generally looked disgruntled and at one point appeared to toss his training bib in the direction of the manager. “It is going to be a problem if he keeps behaving like that, but he could still respond positively in the long run and that is the reason Mourinho left him out”.

Writing in his column for The Mail, the football pundit said: “This time last season if somebody said Diego Costa would not start away at Tottenham you would think they were insane”. The players were given a day off on Monday but will report back on Tuesday to begin preparations for Bournemouth. Mauricio Pochettino made a decision to play a strong starting eleven against Qarabağ FK on Thursday night in the Europa League and would start eight of the same players again just three days later.

Diego Costa’s fall-out with Jose Mourinho has escalated.

Mourinho saw reasons for optimism following the performance and praised Hazard as Chelsea’s “false nine”.

Mourinho said: “Me and Eden have different concepts of number 10”. “When we play as a team and when, especially, we defend as a team, the team is much better”.

“So Diego is privileged I kept him in the team for all these matches and today we thought the best strategy to play was this one”. It’s about the team. “He is the last player to be on the bench”. He scored against Norwich two weeks ago – the winning goal.

“I think Liverpool have a great manager, they will do really well, but I think it is just too early for them to get into the top four”, added Campbell. “Sometimes, for a player who isn’t playing, it’s hard but it is a normal situation for the club”.

“For us the result is not what we want, but the performance is good”.

“Before maybe we might have been happy to draw with Chelsea, now we are disappointed”.

“We have the confidence to win any game if we have the same mentality we have now”.

“We have a lot of respect for everyone but we know we must win the games against the “smaller” clubs if we are to achieve our ambition of finishing high in the League”.