Branislav Ivanovic has stressed the need to put the good of the team above that of the individual in the aftermath of Diego Costa’s frustration at being dropped by Chelsea, with the full-back convinced last year’s talismanic forward will “come back strongly” from spending time on the bench.
Costa, who had always previously been selected when fit, sat out Sunday’s draw at Tottenham Hotspur despite the champions not having another centre-forward in their squad. He opted out of the pre-match warm-up and post-match warm-down, and lobbed his pink bib in the direction of the manager as he returned to his seat in the dugout late on.
José Mourinho pointed out that all Chelsea’s key players have endured spells on the sidelines over a disappointing season, with Costa “privileged” not to have been omitted before. “But I expect Diego to come back strongly,” said Ivanovic, who captained the side at White Hart Lane in the absence of the injured John Terry. “We start the season as a team and we have to finish as a team. This is important.
“When we start losing, we all know it’s not about the one or two players playing badly or playing well. It’s about the team. Diego didn’t play at Tottenham, but I know he’ll be ready for the next game. He scored against Norwich – the winning goal – but it has to be all about the team in the moment. I think we all have to think about that. Sometimes, for a player who isn’t playing, it’s difficult but it is a normal situation for the club.”
Ivanovic has laboured this term, his form unimpressive until a hamstring injury picked up on duty for Serbia against Albania sidelined him for six weeks and offered some respite. “When you look now, [the break] was good for me as I have gained in physical fitness,” he said. “Mentally, I’ve always been really strong. That gives me confidence and I hope, in the next couple of games, I will improve a lot. None of us expected this start to the season. It was a shock to all of us, and it’s taken time to react to everything that’s happened. But I’ve learnt a lot from it. I know where I made mistakes, and I will do everything in the future not to repeat them.”
Chelsea have shown flickers of recovery in recent weeks, with Sunday’s a third clean sheet of the week following wins over Norwich City and Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Champions League. The champions hope to have Terry, Ramires and even Thibaut Courtois – who has been absent since September with meniscus damage in his knee – and Radamel Falcao available for the visit of Bournemouth on Saturday.
The return of key players has offered Chelsea hope that form is picking up at last. “It’s starting to build,” said Ivanovic, who has yet to open talks on a one-year contract extension with his current deal expiring at the end of the season. “Everyone can feel that and everyone can see that. In the last couple of games, we got good results also. Even before that, when we lost a couple of games, we’ve played well. I think the team spirit is back and we are all again on the right track and want to do everything to try to get points back.
“I never talk about where we will finish. We didn’t expect to be in this position at the moment but we are. We have to be realistic and go game by game to get the points. It’s very difficult to say where we can finish because this league is so unpredictable. But we’ll see what happens.”
