Under-fire Costa: I’m not a cry-baby

DIEGO COSTA says he will not change his style of play despite criticism and hit out at the Premier League’s cry-babies.

Costa was handed a retrospective three- game ban for violent conduct by the FA after clashing with Arsenal’s Laurent Koscielny in September.

And the Spain international says that he has the full backing of Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho and will not change his style of play.

Speaking in The Sun, the striker said: “Many times players have done stuff to me, like kick me. But I’m not a cry-baby. I have 100 percent support from my manager, the club and the Chelsea supporters.

“So other people, other opinions, I don’t care, I’m not really bothered.

“I will not change unless my manager or the people from my club or my supporters tell me.”

The Blues have had a poor start to the season in the league and are languishing down in 12th having won just three of

DIEGO COSTA: Won’t change their nine games.

And Costa says he has realise that no one likes Chelsea, but there is still enough time in the season to turn their campaign around.

He added: “We know we can turn this around because it is the beginning of the season and we also know that we are the only ones who can turn this around.”

Meanwhile, Mourinho is unsure if the defending league champions are over the worst following their poor start to the season, but he said yesterday that a win and two clean sheets in the last week had lifted everyone at the club.

The Blues made their worst start to a domestic season for 37 years, recording only two wins in their opening eight league matches.

Yet a 2-0 victory over Aston Villa last Saturday and a 0-0 draw with Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League on Tuesday showed signs of improvement, according to the Portuguese boss.

Asked if their surprising slump was now over, he replied: “I don’t know. The players were always together and were man enough to assume their responsibilities, and for some of them to say publicly they were individually responsible for the poor start.

“The statistics are very simple. We conceded six goals as a consequence of isolated individual mistakes, but we were always together.” – Daily Mail, Reuters