Key Takeaways
Diego Costa was a dominant striker for Chelsea, known for his goal-scoring prowess and fiery temperament.
Costa's first season (2014-15) was highly successful, featuring numerous goals and key victories, leading Chelsea to the Premier League title.
His second season (2015-16) was marred by injuries, controversies, and underperformance.
Costa rebounded in the 2016-17 season, helping Chelsea win another Premier League title before leaving the club.
Football fans who just recently started watching the Premier League might've been familiar with Diego Costa as he played for Wolverhampton Wanderers this season. For those people, he must've been nothing short of a normal striker. Costa's stint with Wolves was quite a short one as well, which was also affected by injuries. This article will be going back to a few years in time, which had Diego Costa terrorizing the Premier League during his stint at Chelsea. He was arguably the best striker in the league at the time, and a controversial figure who was known for his fiery temperament. Let us look at the time when Chelsea and Diego Costa took the Premier League by storm.
A magnificent first season
Diego Costa signed for Chelsea for £32 million from Atletico Madrid. He went on to have a dream start at the club, having scored the equalizer in Chelsea's 3-1 victory over Burnley. This was the beginning of a memorable run for the player, which saw him win the Premier League Player of the Month for August and break the record for most goals in his first four Premier League matches with 7 at the time.
The period of success continued, as Costa won his first trophy with the club after beating Spurs 2–0 to win the League Cup at Wembley Stadium. He also scored the 2nd goal in the match.
By the season's end, he was injured and expected to miss the remaining matches. Costa however, returned in the final match of the season against Sunderland as a substitute and went on to score the equalizer. The season ended with Chelsea becoming league champions, and Costa playing a massive part with his 20 goals.
A second season to forget
Diego Costa's second season with the club was unfortunately overshadowed by off the field issues and constant issues on the field as well. The player had an allegation of assault against him, which was resolved without further action. Things weren't great on the field either, as he had multiple quarrels with different players throughout the season. One of the issues resulted in a 3-match ban for the player as well. To make matters worse, Costa also broke his nose during training that season. Chelsea finished that season without any silverware.
Leaving the Blues as champion
Diego Costa began the 2016–17 season on a solid note, scoring a late winner in Chelsea's 2-1 against West Ham. This was the beginning of his brilliant form, as Conte became the first player to score 10 Premier League goals for the season. His excellent performances saw him voted as the Premier League Player of the Month for the second time in November 2016, while then Chelsea manager Antonio Conte also won the manager of the month award.
By January 2017, Diego Costa had a fallout with Conte. This resulted in the Spaniard being dropped from the team. He eventually returned to the starting lineup and finished the season as Chelsea's top scorer with 20 goals. The Blues ended the season as Premier League champions, with Costa winning his 2nd league title in 3 years. On 27 May, he scored an equalizer in the 2017 FA Cup Final against Arsenal, a 2–1 loss.
That was the end of Diego Costa at Chelsea, as he wasn't a part of coach Antonio Conte's plans for the upcoming season. He ended up returning to Atletico Madrid.
His time at Chelsea can be termed as nothing short of wild, as it included numerous goals, conflicts, silverware, and fallouts. Costa will still undoubtedly be remembered as one of the finest strikers in the club's history.
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