Costa showed great discipline, says Conte

Diego Costa was involved in a number of heated exchanges with Stoke City players, but Antonio Conte felt the Chelsea striker showed good discipline in his side’s 2-1 victory.

The notoriously bullish forward set about ruffling the Stoke defence soon after kick-off and was shown a yellow card in the 17th minute when he reacted angrily after going down easily during a duel with Bruno Martins Indi.

Costa clashed with Ryan Shawcross and Phil Bardsley as the game continued, but Conte was proud of the restraint showed by his player in avoiding a sending off.

“Diego I think played very well and also he showed me great discipline because it’s not easy to start the game and receive a yellow card,” Conte said in a post-match interview.

“Diego is showing me great behaviours, a great will to fight for the team. I want to continue this way and I think he is a really good player.”

The mental and physical toughness displayed by Chelsea was a highlight for Conte, though he is not getting ahead of himself with regards to winning the Premier League title despite opening up a 13-point lead.

FULL-TIME Stoke 1-2 Chelsea. Gary Cahill grabs a late winner for Antonio Conte’s men to move 13 points clear #STKCHE #PL pic.twitter.com/YdNC4P0nc3

— Premier League (@premierleague) March 18, 2017

The advantage could be cut on Sunday, though, with Tottenham, Manchester City and Liverpool all in action – the latter two against one another.

He said: “I’m pleased because to come to this point of the season and to play against Stoke you must be prepared mentally and physically.

“It was a tough game, we tried to always play football. I think we deserved to win, but we faced a very good very strong team.

“There are 10 games to go, the win is a good signal for us. It’s important to continue this way, with the same commitment and work-rate and to think as a team.

“At this point of the season to have 10 points – now we have 13 points – but I like to think, I don’t like but I put that our opponent could win tomorrow and come back against to 10 points.

“I think that we have to look at ourselves and not the other
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s. Today was an important win for us and if good results arrive from other games we are happy.”