Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho believes the
form of back-up strikers Didier Drogba and
Loic Remy is proving to be crucial to his side's
assault on the Premier League title.
Drogba and Remy both scored in the absence
of suspended first choice striker Diego Costa
in the 3-0 win against Tottenham at Stamford
Bridge, with the Blues boss fulsome in his
praise of his second and third choice
marksmen.
"I didn't want to talk about Diego not playing
in this game because I know what I have," he
told reporters. "We have Diego, Drogba and
Remy scoring goals. All of them are scoring
goals.
"Didier and Remy don't play so many minutes,
but when they play there are there and it is
important for us. We don't cry because
somebody is suspended. We just try to be
positive and give confidence to the players
who are going to play."
The Chelsea boss went on to insist he is not
surprised by the form of Drogba, who is
exceeding the expectations many had of him
when he returned to the club for a second
spell last summer at the age of 36.
"I was expecting exactly this from Didier," he
continued. "The important thing is that he's
here and he's going to finish his career with
Chelsea. It looks, for me, that he's going to
stay [at Chelsea] doing other things when he
finishes his career.
"First of all he's a team player. After that he's
one of these old days mentality. Not selfish,
not vain. A humble guy, who plays for the
team, fights for the team.
"It will be his decision when he decides when
to stop as a player. It will be something
personal."
Mourinho went on to suggest Mauricio
Pochettino's Tottenham were unfortunate to
lose so convincingly, as they continued their
record of not winning at Stamford Bridge
since February 1990.
"The 3-0 [score line] is not right for
Tottenham, they play better than that," stated
Mourinho. "For my team, I am so happy. The
points, the goal difference, the performance,
the way the players could identify the difficult
moments of the game. It was fantastic.
"We had difficult moments that we not our
fault. Tottenham created chances and they
started very well at the start of the first and
second half. They are a very good team and
the principles of their team very well
established and it is not easy to play against
them.
"Pochettino is a very positive coach. He
doesn't play for anything other than to win
and to try and play good football. [Harry] Kane
hit the post at the start of the match and they
had another difficult situation for us and if
they score, it would have been difficult for us.
After that, our team was strong and defended
very well."