Chelsea players all want Jose Mourinho to stay and fight, says Loic Remy

France striker insists squad are 'not affected' by the obvious crisis at Stamford Bridge

Chelsea striker Loic Remy speaking with his manager on Tuesday night (Reuters)

Diego Costa is confident that he will recover to play in what could be Jose Mourinho’s last stand, against Liverpool on Saturday.

Costa was assessed after picking up a rib injury in Tuesday’s Capital One Cup defeat at Stoke City. The outlook was thought to be optimistic, the initial assessment suggesting that the injury is just bruising, rather than a fracture.

Chelsea will need their controversial spearhead fully fit for one of the biggest games of their recent history.

Chelsea have taken just 11 points from their first 10 Premier League games – almost relegation form – and have lost at home to Crystal Palace and Southampton already. Mourinho cannot afford many more reverses like those.

If Costa does not play, though, Loïc Rémy is ready to lead the line in his absence. The France international striker insisted that the whole Chelsea squad was still behind Mourinho and that, contrary to appearances, the players were “not affected” by the obvious crisis at Stamford Bridge.

Rémy scored Chelsea’s equaliser on Tuesday night, taking their game with Stoke to extra time, ahead of the penalty shoot-out which they lost. But that was just Rémy’s second goal of the season, and the first, also in the Capital One Cup, had come against Walsall.

Rémy was one of three players – along with Oscar and Radamel Falcao – who were left out of the travelling squad for Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat in Porto on 29 September, after a poor showing in the draw at Newcastle United the previous Saturday.

That was the week when Mourinho told his squad that they, unlike him, were not “serial champions” and had an attitude problem. If that approach has driven a wedge between Mourinho and some of his players this season, Rémy said otherwise, insisting that Mourinho enjoyed their full support.

“It’s important for him to stay and we don’t want to give up,” Rémy said of Mourinho. “We were champions together only last season and he is a really great manager. Of course I don’t want him to leave. I think all the players don’t want that.

“The spirit is good and we are not affected by the situation. We will just keep training well. I’m sure the opportunity to win games will be here sooner rather than later, but obviously it is better for us if it is sooner.”

Rémy did admit, though, that Saturday would be important. “I’m really sure that Saturday will be a big game, but we can still be in the top four of the league if we win games,” he said.

“It does look and feel like, after losing on penalties, that things aren’t going our way. But the quality is still here.”