Ahead of Sunday's Capital One Cup final, Matthew Stanger examines Diego Costa's metoric rise - and his status as Chelsea's key man for their Wembley showdown with Tottenham...
Such has been the speed of Diego Costa’s adaptation to English football, it’s easy to forget this is only the second time he has scored more than ten league goals in a season.
The burly Brazilian found the net 27 times in Atletico Madrid’s La Liga success last year, but before then his highest total was ten strikes in 2012/13 and 2011/12, when he was on loan at Rayo Vallecano.
Costa's breakthrough came in the 2013 Copa del Rey final. After playing understudy to Radamel Falcao for much of the season, Costa cancelled out Cristiano Ronaldo’s early header with a low left-foot drive to help his team to a 2-1 triumph. The Santiago Bernabeu was stunned. Four months later Costa silenced them again to take three points back across the city; a 1-0 victory that proved decisive in the title race.
Before the 2012/13 campaign, Costa had shown flashes of his quality for Atletico, notably with a brilliant hat-trick in a 3-2 victory at Osasuna in 2011. But the arrival of Falcao hindered his first-team opportunities once more at the Vicente Calderon, and a circuitous education that had already included spells at Braga, Celta Vigo, Albacete and Valladolid continued at Rayo Vallecano.
It was there that he first exhibited the potential to be prolific. Away from the spotlight, in Rayo’s 15,000-capacity stadium, the then 23-year-old struck ten times in 16 matches – one more than the number of yellow cards he collected. As the Guardian’s Sid Lowe recalls, so impressive were Costa’s performances that his coach, José Ramón Sandoval, called him the "best striker in the world".
The physical attributes have always been evident. “He is half a team on his own at times,” said Jose Luis Mendilibar, Costa’s manager at Valladolid in 2009/10. “He has this capacity to play up front on his own and occupy more than one opposing defender. Strikers need a little nastiness. It’s important that he doesn’t lose that because it is a big part of his game.”
There are no fears in that regard. While Jose Mourinho criticised his striker’s suspension for violent conduct after it was alleged that he deliberately stamped on Emre Can in the Capital One Cup semi-final, Costa clearly knows how to make his presence felt. It is perhaps his journeyman career before finally making the grade at Atletico that drives him, knowing he has to give everything on the pitch to remain at the highest level.
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Live Capital One Cup Final
Chelsea vs Tottenham
March 1, 2015
Desire
It is not only strength and desire, but quality, too, that sets Costa apart. “I didn’t realise how good he was even after playing against him in the Champions League,” said John Terry in August. “He has caused us some problems in training. When they hand the bibs out you want him to be on your side.”
That potent combination of ability and determination is what causes Costa to be so decisive, highlighted by his statistics. As well as scoring Chelsea’s first goal on six occasions this season, Costa’s 27 La Liga strikes last year came in 22 different matches. He also scored nine times in eight Champions League fixtures, including seven in his first five appearances to become the competition’s greatest ever debutant.
“Fans look at the goals-scored columns but coaches look at what kind of goals a striker scores,” Mendilibar continued. “And Costa is one of those players who scores the opening goal that breaks the opposition down or the only goal of a tough 1-0 win."
Those experiences of being the ‘clutch’ - the player team-mates turn to when the pressure is on - should serve Costa well as he prepares for Sunday’s Capital One Cup final against Tottenham.
There are few who can rival his claim to being the biggest of big-game players, with numerous opponents ready to testify to his quality. Tottenham should proceed with caution, because Costa will expect to play a significant role in Sunday’s outcome.
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