At Chelsea last season, many players such as Eden Hazard, Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa lost their way to a certain extent due to the club’s poor form and Mourinho’s inability to handle the dressing room. But this season, under Conte, Chelsea have been a different machine and are leading the Premier League table comfortably.
Diego Costa and Eden Hazard have been on fire, as Conte’s men went on a 13 match winning streak that almost matched their previous record, until that loss to Tottenham. Costa. in particular. has led from the front as he leads the Premier League goalscoring charts along with Sanchez and Ibrahimovic, who are also on 14 goals for the season.
There has also been a change in attitude from the burly forward, as he has picked up lesser cautions and has kept himself in the good books of the referees. This is down to the calming influence that Antonio Conte has on his players. He has managed to get Costa to channel his inner fire and anger in a way that will help the team. Costa has lead the line admirably and has received several accolades for how well he has played for Chelsea this term.
In the summer, it looked like he was on his way back to Atletico Madrid as he grew frustrated with life in England. Belgian striker Michy Batshuayi was even brought in for big money in order to compensate for the loss of Costa, but Conte managed to convince Costa to stay on board and how that has paid off. Everything was going well until recently, when Costa had a reported bust-up in training, which made him sit out the weekend’s 3-0 win over champions Leicester.
It is rumoured that Costa’s head had been turned by lucrative offers that are coming in from the Chinese Super League, where money has no bounds and limits. Such rumours will obviously irk Conte, who up to now has done fantastically well with Costa as the naturalized Spaniard can be a tough man to handle for managers.
Conte will be hoping that the rumours linking Costa with a move to China are nothing but here-say, as Batshuayi really isn’t a contender to replace Costa at the helm of Chelsea’s attacking unit. It was later reported by Conte that Costa actually missed the Leicester game due to a knock that he had picked up in training. This will come as good news to Chelsea supporters who began to dread the departure of their star striker.
Here are 3 solid reasons why Diego Costa will snub a move to China and remain at Chelsea –
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He’s got it all going for him at the Stamford Bridge
For a while, Chelsea struggled to replace the talisman that was Didier Drogba. Costa is slowly proving to be as good as the Ivorian and some have even said that he could be better than Drogba as there are certain facets of his game that even the African great did not have in his.
Costa played a pivotal role in Chelsea’s title-winning season under Mourinho and is doing the same again this season. He should look to carry on with those fine performances and help Chelsea regain the title. Having also cleaned up his disciplinary act, Costa will be looking to stay clean and avoid any of the mistakes from his past and focus just on football.