Chelsea forward Diego Costa has admitted that he was wrong to throw his training bib at Jose Mourinho during the defending Premier League champion’s match against Tottenham Hotspur last month.
The Brazilian born Spanish international allowed his frustration at not being picked for the game against the club’s London rivals to spill over when it became apparent that Mourinho would not even be using him as a substitute in the game. As he returned to his place on the bench he appeared to remove his training bib and throw it at his Portuguese manager.
That incident came after the player seemed to have a run-in with the Chelsea boss during a Champion’s League tie, with both people shouting at each other as the match neared half-time. Costa has confessed he was wrong to challenge the manager who called himself the ‘Special One’ when he first arrived in England. The striker said, “The bib [incident] is in the past. I made a mistake”.
Speaking to the Spanish radio station Onda Cero, Costa claimed that everything was good between himself and Mourinho, despite the fact that he was dropped to the bench for Chelsea’s games against Spurs and Bournemouth. He said, “My relationship with Mourinho is amazing, we get on really well. There are things you need to control but the bib thing was an impulse”.
The forward returned to the Blues’ starting line-up for their 2-0 win over Porto in the Champion’s League on Wednesday and it was his running and pressing that created the side’s opening goal. He has under-gone a poor run of form in recent games, however, struggling to replicate the form he displayed last season when he netted 20 goals and helped Chelsea to win the Premier League title.
Mourinho played down the bib incident after the game against Tottenham and said that he had ‘no issue’ with the player, but he will no doubt appreciate the striker’s show of contrition as Chelsea head into the busy Christmas period. With Costa likely to start for the Blues in their match against Leicester on Monday night the Chelsea manager will be hoping his goal-scoring improves as much as his attitude appears to have done.