José Mourinho believes that Diego Costa, Chelsea’s new striker, is being deliberately targeted by opposition defenders.
The Spain player was booked during a fiery affair against Everton after being goaded by Séamus Coleman.
Costa then sparked a rumpus after Eden Hazard’s strike, which deflected off Coleman, by celebrating and taunting the Irish defender.
That led to Tim Howard running from his goal to challenge Costa and Jon Moss, the referee, showing the Everton goalkeeper a yellow card.
“Diego is enjoying the nature of this competition,” Mourinho said. “What he is not enjoying is that he comes to play football, but people have been chasing cards for him like they did in this match. He has had two yellow cards in three matches, which is hard to understand.”
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Roberto Martínez, the Everton manager, has ruled out a move into the transfer market in a bid to solve his side’s defensive crisis.
Everton have conceded ten goals in their opening three games and while Martínez refused to blame any individuals for his team’s defensive showing, he said that the failure to hold on to a two-goal lead against Arsenal, in a game that ended level, has affected confidence.
“Sometimes a bad feeling affects your confidence,” Martínez said. “After conceding two late goals against Arsenal and having probably had three points in the bag against Leicester, it then becomes a problem.
“We didn’t defend with a lot of confidence. In the next game [away to West Bromwich Albion] we have to get back to the form of last season where we kept 15 clean sheets.”