Diego Costa: Chelsea striker admits he turned up for pre-season ‘overweight’

The Spanish international has scored only one Premier League goal this season after a sluggish start

Diego Costa has scored only one Premier League goal this season after a sluggish start for Chelsea (Reuters)

Diego Costa has admitted that he returned overweight to pre-season with Chelsea this summer, in a fulsome mea culpa from the striker and his team-mate Ramires, who both said that Jose Mourinho is not to blame for the club’s disastrous start to the season.

The pair, who are not on international duty, made themselves available at the club’s Cobham training ground to launch a defence of Mourinho’s management style and park the blame for the club’s worst start in 37 years squarely with the players. But Costa’s admission about his weight was the most frank yet about a start to a season in which he has scored just one Premier League goal.

Costa said: “I’m going to be very honest. Maybe five or six weeks ago, I was not on top of my game. At least physically. We talk among ourselves and we know that maybe at the beginning we were not 100 per cent as we were supposed to be when we got here. I got injured at the end of the season and then I went on holiday. Maybe I ignored my diet and when I came back I was not the way I was supposed to be. I was a little bit overweight. 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 100 per cent and so are the other guys. We know we’re not in the best form we were supposed to be at the beginning of the season. Because all the work we do here is fantastic. We needed some time and now we are where we want to be.”

Costa, who was left out the Spain squad by Vicente del Bosque, has consistently been given Mourinho’s backing. The Chelsea manager does, however, have a combative style in the dressing room with those he does not believe are performing. Ramires, not selected for Brazil’s games against Chile on Friday night and Peru on Tuesday, argued it was understandable that, at times, Mourinho was critical of his players.

Ramires said: “I think it is very normal that when we are not playing well and we are losing for the manager to take it out on the players. He needs to get a reaction. Maybe some players are not doing what he expects them to do so that’s why he is on top of us, on top of things, trying to get a reaction because he knows he can get the best out of us.”

He added: “We’ve not lost a bit of trust in Jose. Everyone trusts him. We think he is the best manager for us. But obviously when things don’t go the way that everyone expects a lot of questions are asked. We still trust him and I understand perfectly where he is coming from when he said if he didn’t have the confidence of the players he would step aside. But that’s not the case at all. We are all together.”

Costa said that he believed he enjoyed greater respect from Spanish fans when he played at Atletico Madrid. “I’m here because I’m happy with the manager, I’m here because my team-mates have gone away to the international break, I don’t like giving interviews, but I’m speaking for the group. We all feel the same way about Jose.”

Asked whether Mourinho’s reputation meant he attracted criticism, Costa said: “There’s no doubt it’s because of the way he is. That’s crystal clear. He’s very direct, straightforward. He always says what he thinks and what he believes to be the truth. Sometimes it’s not what people want to hear.

“It’s the way he is and it’s why sometimes they criticise him. There are managers who always say what people want to hear. I think that’s not good. I’d rather have someone who tells me straight up what happens rather than sweet things that I want to hear.”

Meanwhile, Chelsea have signed former Milan goalkeeper Marco Amelia on a free transfer. The 33-year-old free agent has been drafted in as cover for Asmir Begovic, with Thibaut Courtois currently out injured. Amelia has agreed a contract until the end of the season.