Costa spoke out in defence of manager Jose Mourinho on Thursday, claiming the players had been complacent and must shoulder more of the blame for a terrible start to the campaign.
‘I’m going to be very honest,’ said Costa. ‘Five or six weeks ago, I was not on top of my game, at least physically.
Chelsea striker Diego Costa in August 2015 (Right) and September 2014 (left) after he admitted that he came back for pre-season overweight at the start of this campaign
‘I got injured at the end of the season and then I went on holiday. Maybe I got out of my diet and when I came back I was not the way I was supposed to be. I was a little bit overweight, and that affected my game.
‘You can be selfish and blame it on the manager but I’m not going to do that. I’m responsible and so are the other guys. We need to blame the players.
‘We know we were not 100 per cent when we got here. We came back from holiday very confident, and thought we could go back into how it was last season. When we actually realised where we were, the team was already in a bad situation.’
Mourinho had vowed to quit if the players lost faith in him but Costa’s comments suggest the squad is firmly behind the man who led them to the Barclays Premier League title only five months ago.
Costa also claimed critics were gleefully taking aim at the Chelsea boss because of his outspoken style.
‘When things don’t go the way everyone expects, people always look for someone to blame,’ said Costa. ‘In some cases they blame the players, but in this case they blame the manager and maybe that’s because it is Mourinho. I have seen sides losing more games than Chelsea, and no one criticises their managers.
