The Spaniard's overly physical approach was matched by Stoke City as Jose Mourinho suffered his seventh Premier League defeat of the seasonIt took less than five minutes for Diego Costa to endear himself to the Stoke City faithful, with the Spain striker aiming a petulant kick at Ryan Shawcross after winning a corner. But as has been his way this season, it was again his goading rather than his goals that was most prevalent at the Britannia Stadium.
Chelsea’s defensive issues have been laid bare throughout the campaign, and were again on Staffordshire as Marko Arnautovic was left free to volley in the winner for the home side, but it is at the other end of the pitch where their main problem lies.
Costa was a revelation in his first year at Stamford Bridge, a powerful forward with unerring finishing ability that offered a neat contrast to the other outstanding striker in the division – Sergio Aguero – in his maiden campaign.
All that is a distant memory now. Instead it seems Costa is being deployed as a player to unsettle defences rather than unlock them. That may be Mourinho’s plan for certain matches – see the victory over Arsenal as a prime example – but it is a flawed one. If Chelsea are to get out of this mess they first need to work out a way to get their star striker firing.
In previous weeks those playing directly behind Costa could have shouldered a decent proportion of the blame, but at Stoke that was far from the case. The recalled Eden Hazard and – to a lesser extent – Pedro did enough to suggest they should be given further run-outs after the international break while Willian remains the one player in Mourinho’s squad to have shown improvement this term.
But ahead of them Costa lacks the movement or pace to really hurt defences as he did for both Chelsea and Atletico Madrid in previous years. Last season, he seemed to relish the idea of proving those centre-backs who reacted to his antics that he was more than just a nuisance. Now many are prepared for his aggressive style and are more inclined to brush it off and concentrate on defending.
His attempted runs lack any real direction, and with his history of hamstring injuries inhibiting him, he has become a far easier man to mark from open-play. His prowess in the air remains, but at present it is his only redeeming feature.
His only effort of note at the Britannia came about when he showed something of the old Costa in dragging Phillipp Wollscheid wide before striking a shot towards bottom corner. Unfortunately for him, he came up against a goalkeeper in Jack Butland, who - along with Petr Cech and David de Gea – the most in-form goalkeeper the league has to offer.
By the second half, however, he proved to be a mere passenger in Chelsea’s push for an equaliser, and had to turn to diving when looking to get past Shawcross and arguing with both centre-backs in a bid to halt their concentration. It did not come close to working.
There are a number of players who will have to take long looks at themselves should Roman Abramovich’s patience run out with Mourinho and his side’s poor results, with very few members of the squad having covered themselves in anything close to glory in the opening months of the season.
But Costa is far more at fault than most. He is becoming public enemy number one and his goalscoring exploits of last season are a mere memory. It is time for him to step up before this Chelsea side inexplicably finds itself entrenched in a relegation battle no one saw coming.
