Mourinho pleased for Costa after Chelsea win

Jose Mourinho said he was pleased for Diego Costa after the striker’s second-half goal gave Chelsea a 1-0 victory against Norwich.

Costa missed two good chances and was having a frustrating afternoon before scoring his fourth goal of the season and his first in seven matches.

It was a mixed performance by the Spain international, who has come in for criticism this season.

“We have so many pundits and some of them were strikers and they know the feeling that when you don’t score goals the pressure is there,” Mourinho said.

“It’s not just about goals, it’s about fluency. When you are full of confidence you have fluency in your decisions and when you lose confidence you lose fluency.

“So yes, he can do much better. But the one goal he scored for us was very important.

“In the first half he had two chances and the second one was a big one, so it was important for him (to score). The result was important for us, but the goal was also important for him.

“If I had to choose somebody to score the winning goal I would choose him.”

Mourinho’s side had lost seven of their 12 previous Premier League matches this season and he admitted to feeling a sense of relief after the much-needed home win.

And the Blues boss felt his team’s overall display meant they should have been comfortably ahead rather than forced to endure an anxious final few minutes as Norwich pushed forward in search of an equaliser.

He said: “I didn’t think we deserved the heartbeat of the last four minutes. I think we deserved to be winning with two, three or four goals and be relaxed.

“But we couldn’t, and once more the relation between the way we play and the amount we score is not good.

“But in the last minutes we could cope with the pressure – I was feeling it and the players were feeling it – and we got the result.

“So yes there is a bit of relief. On the bench I’m fine but you can get disappointed with the way things go, but I’m happy for the players.”