Chelsea have made an unbeaten start to their Premier League campaign under new manager Antonio Conte and their renaissance has been spearheaded by mercurial striker Diego Costa.
The 27-year-old is the joint top scorer in the division after four games alongside Zlatan Ibrahimović and Michail Antonio and has looked every bit of the bulldog he announced himself to the English audience as, following his £32 million move from Atlético Madrid in 2014. Costa scored twenty goals that season as Chelsea romped to the league title and while they might find that a much harder proposition this year, early indications suggest they will be in the mix for domestic honours throughout the course of the season.
Often ridiculed for his antics on the pitch, Costa has attracted a lot of attention from the media as well as his opponents and has inherited the tag of a pantomime villain. He has often clashed with centre-halves and has also tried winding them up either verbally or physically. While these tactics may seem dark and uncouth in nature, it works to great effect more often than not. Costa’s battle with Laurent Koscielny during Chelsea’s 2-0 defeat of Arsenal resulted in Gabriel intervening and lashing out at the Spaniard, only for the centre-half to receive his marching orders and jeopardise the contest for his side.
Interestingly, Conte feels this element of his striker’s game is given too much importance by his critics and keeping in mind the promising start he has made to the new domestic season, he has a point. That is one aspect of Costa’s personality he has chosen to ignore and by focusing entirely on his abilities, he has managed to bolster his team’s attacking gauntlet. The Brazil-born talisman netted a brace against Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium on Sunday and was praised for his movement both on and off the ball. His second goal was a combination of patience and impeccable technique as a deflected cross from Ivanovic was turned with a sumptuous overhead kick. Liverpool are Chelsea’s next opponents at Stamford Bridge and Costa’s excellent form has kept opposition boss Jürgen Klopp on his heels.
Reinvigorating a striker’s potential can be done in many ways and the arrival of Michy Batshuayi has been an important factor in Costa’s recent resurgence. The Belgian striker has only made a handful of substitute appearances for his new club, following a big money move from Marseille and has spurred his new strike partner on strongly thus far. The Blues last gasp win at Watford was a perfect instance of the duo combining to full effect and more shall be expected of them in the games to come.
Another major influence has been Conte’s willingness to rejig the system as and when deemed necessary. The Italian has been renowned for his pragmatic approach and quick thinking when it comes to tough situations, an ideal instance of which was Chelsea’s win against West Ham United. Having switched to a 4-4-2 formation following James Collins’ late equalizer, Conte brought on Batshuayi to partner Costa up front and reaped rich rewards from that move. The Spaniard scored the winning goal and got Chelsea’s new boss off to a good start.
It is fair to say the Italian manager has had a huge role to play in Costa’s revival and should things stay the way they are, there might be a new challenger for the Golden Boot this year.