Harry Redknapp: Chelsea must stop thinking that everyone's out to get them

Follow the Blueprint: Chelsea strolled to the title when they concentrated on the football
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Harry Redknapp24 September 2015

Chelsea’s siege mentality isn’t getting them anywhere. Last year they just got on with their football and walked away with the Premier League. They had to dig in towards the end but they played some of the best football around early on.

That seems like a lifetime ago now. This year, there appears to be plenty of aggravation around the club and it seems obvious to me that everything is not right in the camp.

They keep making headlines for the wrong reasons. It’s either the situation with the doctor, Diego Costa or it’s something else other than the football. Chelsea are a fantastic team with the best manager in the League — they just need to get on with it now and play football.

You want to be liked by more than just your own supporters. You want people all over the country to appreciate that you are the best team, you play good football and you play the game in the right way.

You want to be known as a sporting side and that you don’t have to cheat to win. I’m not saying Chelsea are doing that but if ignoring all this is contributing to a siege mentality designed to get the best out of them, it clearly isn’t working.

They seem to have lost track of the most important thing which is simply the football. Chelsea need to react positively to Costa’s suspension but you imagine Jose Mourinho is going to have his say on it and the whole thing could escalate again. None of this is good for them.

Costa’s three-game ban following the Arsenal game is harsh but he is causing a problem for Jose, who can’t afford to keep having his best centre-forward banned every week.

I can’t believe the referee, Mike Dean, or one of his assistants hasn’t seen the incident with Laurent Koscielny. Costa has thrown his arms out — meaning the officials have to make a decision — but I thought Mike would have seen it and given him a yellow card.

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Still, Costa is his own worst enemy. He is going to have aggro every week and he isn’t going to change.

And he is not being picked on. Costa has deserved all the criticism he has got so far. He is a good player but he goes around smacking people in the gob. He goes out there and wants to fight with centre-halves all game. He knew exactly what he was doing when he stamped on Emre Can and Martin Skrtel against Liverpool last season.

So he brings it on himself. He hasn’t been persecuted. I’d be lying if I said something different. There have already been rumours about him wanting to go back to Spain but I don’t care where he plays, he’ll still be giving centre-halves stick.

The problem is when he loses that edge, he is finished as a player. When Mourinho says to him, ‘Look, Diego, calm down — don’t go out there and smash a centre-back as he goes to clear the ball, don’t leave an elbow in on someone’, he’ll be nowhere near as effective.

From what I hear he is aggro full stop. He is not an easy guy to manage. He is wild. I thought Jose was brave last week — I’d have taken him off at half-time. He looked a red card waiting to happen.

He’s a marked man now, even more than before. If I was managing Newcastle this weekend I’d show them what Gabriel did and tell my centre-backs to keep their cool. Concentrate on your game. If he fouls you, the referee has to deal with — don’t retaliate yourself.

Referees are going to be after him now. They will know he’s wild. And that’ll make it even harder for Chelsea to just focus on the football.

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