Jose Mourinho has revealed the reason for dropping Eden Hazard from his Chelsea team that beat Aston Villa 2-0 at Stamford Bridge on Saturday after saying the decision was due to the Blues conceding too many goals.
The Portuguese made five changes to his starting XI that played Tim Sherwood's side on Saturday, with Hazard dropping to the bench as Willian and Pedro were preferred on the flanks.
Hazard has been underwhelming this season, and was at fault for giving the ball away that led to Southampton striker Graziano Pelle scoring the Saints' third goal in their 3-1 win over Chelsea two weeks ago.
Mourinho admitted after the club's victory against Villa on Saturday that Chelsea's poor defensive record was the reason why he decided to leave Hazard out of his starting line-up - although the Belgian was brought on as a late substitute - as he wanted to provide more cover for the defence.
"I left Hazard out because we are conceding lots of goals. We need to defend better. We need our midfield players to be just worried about the central area of the pitch, not to be worried about compensating for the left side or the right side," he said.
"Playing with Pedro and Willian, the midfield players don’t have to look to the left or the right. Willian and Pedro did amazing defensive work on very good offensive players, Hutton and Richardson, and later Amavi.
"They allowed the midfield players to be very comfortable, and to have performances like Ramires and Fabregas had, totally controlling the centre of the pitch.
"It was just a tactical decision leaving super quality on the bench but bringing tactical discipline and hoping that the team could be solid. I continue in that way or he [Hazard] comes in our direction and tries to replicate the same work Willian or Pedro did."
Diego Costa returned from his three-game suspension at Stamford Bridge on Saturday and, after spending the international break working on his fitness at Cobham following his omission from Spain's squad, the striker proved the difference against Sherwood's team.
Costa scored Chelsea's opener before being heavily involved in the second goal, although it was officially given as an Alan Hutton own strike after the Blues forward's effort deflected off the Villa defender and into the net.
Despite that, Mourinho praised Costa for his showing on Saturday and admitted the way the striker had trained in the past week had given him hope he would have an impact against Villa.
"The way Diego was working in the past two weeks, I knew clearly he would bring something positive for us," Mourinho added.
