Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has moved to explain his decision to drop Eden Hazard from his starting eleven for their weekend victory over Aston Villa.
The Blues boss has seen his side struggle for form thus far this season and elected to start Belgian international Hazard on the bench as Chelsea picked up a much needed win over struggling Villa.
Hazard has been on a run of poor form for both club and country but must still have been surprised at his omission on Saturday.
“I left Hazard out because we have been conceding too many goals. We needed more stability and effort to help make the team more solid,”
“I like quality, but when you don’t have the ball you don’t have quality. And you don’t have control.
“It was a tactical decision I felt we had to make and I told the players that this was not the time to be selfish and think only of themselves and be selfish. This has to be a moment for the team and nothing else.
“I want them to look at the bigger picture to get the results we need back. Once we have done thast we can then go back to what we were before.
“When the confidence is a bit low as it has been the quality goes down also. This was not a brilliant performance today, but it was a solid one. We sought more stability and control and we got it.” Added Mourinho in quotes reported by Goal.com.
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Chelsea’s 2-0 win over Aston Villa, achieved thanks to a Diego Costa effort and an Alan Hutton own goal, lifted the Stamford Bridge side up to 11th place in the Premier League table, still some ten points behind leaders Man City.