‘Players responsible’

LONDON: Chelsea’s Diego Costa admitted to being overweight at the start of the season and defended under-fire manager Jose Mourinho, insisting the players are to be blamed for the champions’ poor start to the Premier League season. Chelsea languish 16th in the league table and owner Roman Abramovich was moved to publicly back the manager after their fourth league loss of the season against Southampton at the weekend. Costa scored 20 league goals last term as Chelsea went on to win the title with a comfortable eight-point margin but has struggled so far this campaign. The Spain international has a solitary league goal and has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, including being retrospectively banned for violent conduct during the 2-0 win over Arsenal on September 19. “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,” the 27-year-old added.