Shortly after the final whistle blew at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, Antonio Conte and Diego Costa could be seen walking back towards the tunnel together. Manager appeared to be sharing a joke with player, one he declined to expand on later, but their body language said it all. Smiles, a warm embrace, mutual bonhomie, and with regard to Costa the concrete sense that he is entering 2017 in a far happier mood than he did 2016.
This time last year the forward was in the midst of a personal crisis, having scored just six times for a Chelsea side making a mockery of their status as league champions, and was spending more time picking fights with opposition players than terrorising them with his talents. Now he is the key figure of the team that sit six points clear at the top of the Premier League on the back of a record‑equalling 13-game winning run. Costa has 14 goals, making him the division’s top scorer, with his latest against Stoke City typifying the 28‑year‑old at his barnstorming, ruthless best, the man who spearheaded Chelsea’s title success of 2014-15 and appears ready to do so again.
“The team has changed, not just me,” he said. “Last season we felt a frustration. We didn’t give the account of ourselves we should have done. We weren’t the team we should be. I wasn’t the player I should be. There were various issues but this season it has changed. The manager has come and applied his ideas. Things are going well.”
Of that there is no doubt. Conte has revitalised Chelsea, tactically and in terms of their spirit, which could be seen at the weekend in what the Italian described as the toughest challenge his team have faced during their winning sequence. Stoke played with aggression and assurance and twice pegged back the hosts. But those in blue kept on believing, kept on driving forward, and eventually triumphed 4-2.
It was fitting that Costa sealed the three points with the fourth goal, having delivered another fine front-man display. He was a constant menace and did not react to the rugged manner in which those in the visitors’ ranks, Ryan Shawcross in particular, looked to keep him at bay. Last season Costa would have lashed out – or accused Shawcross of smelling rotten, as he did when the pair clashed at the Britannia Stadium 14 months ago – but here he kept his calm, something he says is the result of accepting referees in this country are “against me” and: “If they’re not going to change, I had to change.”
Eyebrows may well be raised at that statement and it’s worth noting that for all his “changes”, Costa has already served a one-match suspension this season. But he definitely seems calmer and he delivered the perfect response to Stoke’s attentions with a vicious strike past Lee Grant on 85 minutes having floored Bruno Martins Indi with brute strength and persistence.
Costa has now been involved in 19 goals this season – more than any other player across Europe’s top five divisions. “Things are coming out well for me this season,” he said. “The truth is that the manager is good with the players, every time making jokes and that’s good for us, to have a manager who is not just a boss but a person we can talk to, someone whose support we can count on. We love him more all the time.”
That love is clearly mutual – Conte describes Costa as an “important player”, and Chelsea fans may well shudder upon being reminded that the pair came close to not working together at Stamford Bridge. “Yes, yes, I was about to leave [in the summer],” said Costa. “I had the possibility of going back to Atlético [Madrid] because of a few things; the family, the life I have there. I wanted to change for family reasons but, well, it wasn’t to be and I continue to be happy here.
“It was important that the manager from the very first minute said he counted on me.”
Costa’s importance to Chelsea can be further seen in the fact his 14 league goals have come in 13 games. He has failed to score in only seven appearances in all competitions, and in only three of those did he complete 90 minutes. When Costa has played this season, he has tended to score.
It should come as no surprise, then, that he is the latest figure to be linked with a move to China, with reports on Sunday claiming that Tianjin Quanjian are planning to make an £80m bid for the Brazil-born Spain international. Despite the size of the fee, it seems inconceivable Chelsea would sanction the move, and for Costa there must surely be the desire to see out a campaign in which he is on course to secure another Premier League winner’s medal and be named player of the year. As he said himself: “I am very happy, very content.”
Chelsea’s collective focus now turns to visiting Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday and making history: no English club has won 14 successive top-flight games during a single campaign.
Conte described the match as “the biggest challenge” Chelsea have faced since the first of their 13 victories – at Hull on 1 October – while from Costa came the insistence that the leaders are fully aware of what awaits them at White Hart Lane, a venue where they have not won since 2012.
“It’s a London derby so the match is played a bit stronger,” he said. “But that’s no problem. We go there looking to do the best we can.”
