DIEGO COSTA
It was that infamous nine-goal thriller at Goodison Park
when the Premier League got a true taste of Diego Costa. First impressions: an
aggressive goalscorer but also a liability.
Chelsea’s summer signing scored in
the first and last minutes, squared up to Tim Howard and Sylvain Distin, then
celebrated in Seamus Coleman’s face, risking a red card. Costa got away with it
on that occasion and Chelsea went on to win the title with him at the helm.
Last season something changed. There
were boos aimed at Costa by some Chelsea supporters and it is coming up to one
year since a fan unfurled a banner at Stamford Bridge that labelled him a ‘rat’
who let Jose Mourinho down. If that was the case, he’s doing no such thing to
Antonio Conte.
For the first time since he signed
for Chelsea, Costa is not fouling left, right and centre. Under Conte, his
energy is used elsewhere.
Last season Costa committed 43 fouls
in 28 appearances, averaging 1.5 a game. The season before, when Chelsea were
crowned champions, it was 33 in 26, or 1.3.
That’s a thing of the past under Conte. Costa – for the
first time in his career – is currently committing less than one foul a game.
He has history with Everton,
however, who face Chelsea on Saturday evening.
Costa escaped red in that 6-3 game
at Goodison in 2014 but he was sent off for the first time in England two years
later – against Everton in the FA Cup after an altercation with Gareth Barry.
Yet Costa is coming across as an
altogether different player this season to the one who seemed certain to be
sold in the summer.
Atletico Madrid were prepared to pay
for his return and Costa confirmed that in August: ’I wished I could go back.
I’m not going to lie. I had the chance to go back but I couldn't, because of a
few details.’
The 28-year-old stayed and not only
is he fouling less – he is shooting and scoring more than he was under
Mourinho, too.
PL GAMES TO REACH 40 GOALS... AND HOW MANY OF THE 40 WERE
PENALTIES
45 - Andy Cole (0) and Alan Shearer
(5)
57 - Kevin Phillips (8)
60 - Fernando Torres (0) and Ruud
van Nistelrooy (10)
64 - Diego Costa (1)
71 - Sergio Aguero (5)
73 - Thierry Henry (4)
74 - Harry Kane (5) and Teddy
Sheringham (10)
Last weekend, Costa scored his 40th
goal in the Premier League and he took 64 games to get there.
He got to the milestone faster than
Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero, who took 71 games and had help from five
penalties.
Thierry Henry took 73 games and four
penalties. Teddy Sheringham took 74 and 10. By comparison, only one of Costa’s
40 was from the spot.
All Premier League greats, all
beaten to the 40 club by Chelsea’s so-called liability.
Sure, he has a rough reputation.
There was the stamp on Liverpool’s Emre Can. His lashing out at Arsenal’s
Laurent Koscielny. The time he kicked out at Sunderland’s John O’Shea.
But Costa’s game is changing under
Conte.
It was against Southampton that
Costa hit No 40. A thing of beauty, too, as he ignored Cuco Martina’s moonwalk
and curled it into the corner.
This season Costa has a 70.8 per
cent shooting accuracy – compared to 52.8 per cent last.
He is currently the third best
player in the Premier League for shooting, with only Romelu Lukaku (73.9 per
cent) and Joshua King (80 per cent) more accurate as it stands.
On Saturday, Costa and Lukaku will
go up against one another, just as they did in 2014 in that 6-3 game.
Conte may tell the Premier League’s
top goalscorer to keep his cool this time, as Costa leads Chelsea towards a
title push that seemed unlikely in pre-season.
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