When it was announced that Antonio Conte was taking up the reigns at Chelsea, I stated that one of his first orders of business should be persuading Diego Costa to stay at Stamford Bridge.

It’s fair to say that Diego didn’t enjoy the best of seasons last term, but then again who did for the Blues? (Well I suppose Willian did but that was about it.)

Speculation surrounded the Spanish striker all summer. PSG were linked with a move and it was widely reported that Atletico Madrid were desperate to bring the player back to the Vicente Calderon.

But I knew that if Costa stayed in London, he could flourish again in the Premier League as long as he  had a manager who believed in him.

New boss Conte certainly think’s highly of his striker and said this:

“Diego is a great player. I know that he is a fantastic finisher but I think he can still improve a lot. I hope for this.”

After five league games things are looking good again for Costa at the Bridge. He’s bagged five goals and created an assist in the only Premier League game that he failed to find the net in.

The twenty-seven year old is firing again and his movement seems to have improved. Defenders struggle with his brute strength, decent turn of pace and his quality finishing.

Now being Diego Costa it hasn’t all been sweetness and light.

During the opening game of the season against West Ham United, Costa would score a late winner but only after escaping not seeing a red card for a late challenge on the Hammer’s keeper.

A week later against Watford he was booked for dissent and could have received another yellow had the ref deemed his fall in the Hornet’s penalty area to be a dive. Thankfully for Diego the referee didn’t reach for another card and he would again go on and score a winner for his team.

Diego Costa is just one of those players that feeds off confrontation. He just doesn’t seem happy unless he’s scoring a goal or butting heads with a rival’s centre-half.

If he can control that aggression and continue to grab the important goals then this could be a fantastic year for Costa.

But this weekend could be the real test for Costa as he faces up to old rivals Arsenal.

He’s actually got an unbeaten league record against the Gunners. In four appearances he’s helped his time win three and drawn the other while scoring two goals against the London rivals.

Last season he had an altercation with Gabriel Paulista and that saw the Arsenal defender being shown a red card. Moments earlier Costa would put his hands on Laurent Koscielny’s face and that was missed by the referee. The FA would then retrospectively ban the hot-headed striker for three games.

This time around he needs to stay on the right side of the law. I’d also prefer it if he could stop moaning at referees as it leads to silly yellow cards and suspensions. But maybe that’s asking for too much!

Hopefully this time around everyone can discuss Diego Costa’s football talents and not his use of the dark arts.

Posted on September 22nd, 2016 by scott
Filed under: Article