Chelsea 3 Tottenham 0: Jose Mourinho 'did not remember' Diego Costa as Didier Drogba rolls back the years
Costa was suspended for the Premier League leaders
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Your support makes all the difference.Jose Mourinho said that he “did not remember” the suspended Diego Costa as Didier Drogba inspired Chelsea to a 3-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur at Stamford Bridge.
Drogba produced his best performance since returning to Chelsea, creating the first goal and scoring the second, and Mourinho hailed the “remarkable” contribution of a 36-year-old who is now looking as sharp as he has done for years.
“Did you remember Diego Costa today?, I didn’t” Mourinho said in his post-match press conference.
“We don't have a player? We don't cry about it. You give confidence to the others and the others respond in the best way.”
Mourinho was delighted with Drogba’s response to selection and predicted that he would stay at the club in a non-playing capacity at the end of his contract.
“First of all he is a team player,” Mourinho said. “After that, he's one of these old-days mentality: not selfish, not vain, a humble guy who plays and fights for the team. Fantastic. The important thing is he is here and will finish his career with Chelsea. It looks, for me, that he's going to stay doing other things when he finishes his career.”
Whether or not this is Drogba’s last season as a player, Mourinho was not sure. “I don't know,” he said. “It must be his decision. He came here to stay, I want him to stay, the club want him to stay. It will be his decision when he decides when he must stop as a player.”
Mourinho was delighted with a win that was comfortable in the end, despite Spurs being the better side in the opening 20 minutes. “We played against a very good team and they showed that during some periods in the game,” Mourinho said. “They started better than us and should have scored before us, but after our first goal our team became more stable and confident and we controlled the game. I'm really happy with the points, performance and spirit of the players.”
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