Diego Costa was a cult hero and fan favourite at Chelsea during his time with the Blues.
The fiery forward scored 52 Premier League goals in 89 appearances, won the top-flight twice under Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte, respectively, and now returns to Stamford Bridge with Wolves.
Costa had a fantastic record at Stamford Bridge
At home, Costa bagged 30 top-flight goals and set up nine more in 45 games.
This means he averaged a goal contribution every 95 minutes.
Costa bullied Premier League defenders for three seasons before he departed the club under a cloud of controversy.
The now 34-year-old scored twenty goals during the 2014/15 campaign and the same in 2016/17 - the two years the Blues won the title.
He did pick up a lot of yellow cards and was involved in numerous controversial incidents but was never sent off, although he served his fair share of suspensions through yellow cards and other misdemeanours.
He was a player every other fan in the league hated, but Chelsea supporters loved him because he was a total animal.
Costa used to love a scrap and was perfectly suited to the physical stuff
In his first four league matches for Chelsea, he scored seven goals as he made the top-flight look easy.
And then, under Conte, he made a flying start to life as the Italian won the Premier League in his first season thanks in part to Costa's goals.
During the first half of the 2016/17 campaign, Costa bagged 14 times as Chelsea won 13 games in a row to put the title firmly in their hands.
He dropped off a bit in the second half of the year after seeing a move to China fall through.
Conte then told him he wasn't part of his plans and it all ended badly.
But Costa still made a huge impact in his time at Stamford Bridge, and now, he is back.
Costa could come back to haunt Chelsea
The Brazilian-born forward made his league debut for Wolves against West Ham after joining the club outside of the transfer window.
He missed a good chance and set up a goal that was ruled out for offside, so he looks pretty sharp and will be ready to cause some pain.
Graham Potter has yet to taste defeat as Chelsea boss and is looking to make it three wins in a week, but he knows Costa could stop that.
He told the media in his pre-match press conference: "We have a lot of respect for him and his career. He's at Wolves and he's going to come and be ready to play. I followed his career from afar and I've got a lot of respect for him."
So Potter and the home faithful know what Costa can do.
Certainly, the script appears to be written for Costa to turn up at Stamford Bridge and dominate like he used to.
No comments:
Post a Comment