Diego Costa and Jose Mourinho are still not seeing eye to eye after their row during last week's Champions League match. Photo / AP
Diego Costa and Jose Mourinho are still not seeing eye to eye after their row during last week's Champions League match. Photo / AP
Fuming Costa throws bib at boss Mourinho as spat goes up notch at White Hart Lane
Diego Costa's fall-out with Jose Mourinho has escalated.
After the Chelsea striker was dropped for the match against Spurs yesterday, Costa staged a one-man rebellion when named as a substitute for the goalless draw in the English Premier League at Tottenham.
First he refused to warm up with his teammates ahead of kick-off, threw his bib in the direction of the Chelsea manager when he was not brought on and then ate lunch on the team bus by himself - after not taking part in the post-match warm-down.
The Spaniard's latest strop came just five days after he and Mourinho had a blazing row on the pitch at half-time of their win against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Champions League. Mourinho felt his forward was not making the correct runs and Costa let him know in no uncertain terms what he thought of the criticism.
Yesterday, although he warmed up on the touchline with his fellow substitutes when asked to by Mourinho during the match, he reacted pettily to not making it on to the pitch.
Mourinho sent on Ruben Loftus-Cheek in the second minute of stoppage time and Costa returned to his seat in the dug-out and threw his pink bib over his shoulder. It floated just past his boss's head.
Mourinho tried to play down the latest bust-up, saying: "If he wants to hurt me, it's not with a bib. I have a good relationship with him, no problem. He was ready to play when he went to warm up. When I decided not to play him, he went. And probably he is eating while waiting for us in the bus.
A petulant Costa throws his bib in the direction of Mourinho when he was not required against Tottenham at White Hart Lane yesterday.
"Diego is very privileged because he was the last one to be on the bench. Everyone else has been. The message to all my players, not just Diego, is that when we play as a team, and especially when we defend as a team, the team is much better.'
Costa's hissy-fit was the only negative in a match that was, in many ways a throwback, a return to a period of English football when two teams could kick lumps out of each other and still shake hands afterwards. Costa would have loved it.
The brooding London derby was right up Costa's street, with an air of menace about White Hart Lane as Tottenham and Chelsea snarled at each other for 90 minutes.
But Chelsea looked better off without him, playing with a sense of spirit and togetherness that had been lacking since they paraded the Premier League trophy in May.
"It was the best we have played this season, even though we did not win," said Mourinho. "We come away with one point but I think we deserved a bit more."
The fallen champions are 14th, 10 points off Tottenham, and yet you know Chelsea will put together one of those relentless, winning runs somewhere along the line.
Spurs seduced us with that 5-3 win on New Year's Day last season, when Chelsea defender Gary Cahill was left mangled by the match-winner Harry Kane. Kane came up short this time.
The result suited Chelsea more, as they avoided an eighth defeat in the Premier League this season against a Spurs team who have been piecing together an impressive sequence of results under their manager Mauricio Pochettino.
Mourinho relied on Eden Hazard, playing him in the central striker's role in place of Costa. And the Belgian was tantalising at times, a real tease as he raced across the width of the pitch while exchanging passes with Pedro, Willian and Oscar at will.
Ultimately it was a classic Chelsea holding job, keeping Tottenham at arm's length and restricting Kane from inflicting some real damage.
Once the fatigue set in, a legacy of their 8000km round trip to Azerbaijan in the Europa League last Thursday evening, Tottenham were pretty much spent.
Mourinho dug in, ignoring Costa's goalscoring credentials by sending for Brazilian youngster Kenedy and midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek to see the game out.
All in all it was a decent point for Chelsea, who kept a third successive clean sheet as they returned to the principles that turned Mourinho into the game's ultimate trophy hunter.
