Diego Costa 'lucky I persevered with him for so long', says Jose Mourinho

'If he wants to hurt me, it's not with a bib,' said the Blues' boss.

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho and striker Diego Costa (Getty Images)

Jose Mourinho said yesterday that misfiring Diego Costa was fortunate to survive as long as he did without being benched. The Chelsea manager left Costa as an unused substitute at Tottenham yesterday, two days after publicly criticising his lack of anticipation and movement.

“Diego is very privileged because he was the last one to be on the bench,” Mourinho said. “Everyone else has been: the captain [John Terry]; Ivanovic; Cahill, the vice-captain of England; Fabregas; Pedro; Hazard, player of the season; Oscar; everyone was on the bench. Diego was privileged because I kept him in the team for all these matches.”

Costa, who has scored only four times this season and only seven times for Chelsea in the last 10 months, was a reluctant substitute and did not warm up before the game or warm down afterwards. At one point he took off his bib and threw it towards Mourinho, who tried to laugh it off afterwards.

“If he wants to hurt me, it is not with a bib,” he said, adding: “I have a good relationship with him. His mood is positive. I was not expecting to have a player on the bench jumping and singing because he is not playing. For a top player, his behaviour was normal. He was ready to play when he went to warm up.”

Mourinho said Chelsea had not missed Costa in the goalless draw, and that he had been reluctant to use any of his substitutes. “I was looking for a winner, but without [Diego],” he said. “I was tempted not to change one player. I was looking at the team on the pitch to give me a winner. We had two or three big chances and lots of half-chances.”

Mourinho praised the movement of Eden Hazard, who took Costa’s place up front and had Chelsea’s two best chances. “That was his best game of the season,” Mourinho said. “Even without scoring, his appetite to be important in the game, and make an impact, was there.”

The manager said he would decide this week whether Hazard or Costa would start up front against Bournemouth on Saturday, but that he was confident goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois would return after three months out injured.

Tottenham’s manager, Mauricio Pochettino, described his players as heroes for producing a strong performance so soon after returning from Azerbaijan, where they beat Qarabag 1-0 in the Europa League on Thursday evening.

“We deserved more than we got, so I was disappointed, but it’s true that I’m proud of the players,” he said. “For me they’re big heroes. The effort was massive. Chelsea played one of their best games of the season, and when you make the effort we showed and the maturity, you have to be happy with your players.”