Such a difference having a top class striker you can be confident in up top. It really is like a whole new world when you compare it to the dross we recently had up front for the past two-three seasons. Perfect fit for us, and although I never doubted that he'd do well here I didn't expect him to rack up the goals this quickly. Long way it continue.

 

Do hope he gets rested against Schalke tomorrow though. He deserves that so his hamstring can heal 100%.

Should we be concerned by José’s comments last night about Diego not being able to play 2-3 times in the one weak due to the hamstring issue?

I mean Atletico played him in almost every game last season home and in Europe, he will be key for us in the latter CL games (if we get there of course) as well as the EPL race. I hope it’s just a case of resting it as much as possible and hoping it resolves itself.

Of course we should be concerned about Costa. Jose knows about his hamstring much more than he is willing to let on. Well rested Costa, that's what the club requires. I am a bit concerned about the ability of Drogba, not much there last night. I hope, Remy is able to score if needed.

Should we be concerned by José’s comments last night about Diego not being able to play 2-3 times in the one weak due to the hamstring issue?

I mean Atletico played him in almost every game last season home and in Europe, he will be key for us in the latter CL games (if we get there of course) as well as the EPL race. I hope it’s just a case of resting it as much as possible and hoping it resolves itself.

It is a concern, which is why I was disappointed remy wasn't given the start last night. We need to keep him in form so we can use costa sparingly.

We don't want to get in a situation, where remy loses form and confidence due to a lack of minutes, like Ba to an extent.

Realistically remy should start every cl group game, and carling cup game.

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho suggested Diego Costa is not ready to start more than one game a week after using him as a substitute in the draw with Schalke.

Striker Costa, who joined from Atletico Madrid for £32m in July, came on in the 74th minute as Chelsea drew 1-1 in their Champions League Group G opener.

The 25-year-old, who has scored seven goals this season, injured a hamstring playing for Spain on September 4.

Mourinho said: "If he has one week to let the muscle recover he can start."

Brazil-born Costa passed a late fitness test to play against Swansea in the Premier League on Saturday, scoring his first hat-trick in English football in a 4-2 win.

But Mourinho opted to give striker Didier Drogba his first start since rejoining Chelsea in the summer, for their opening European game of the season.

The 36-year-old Ivorian struggled to make an impact as Cesc Fabregas's 11th-minute opener for the Blues was cancelled out by Klaas-Jan Huntelaar just after the hour mark.

Chelsea, who are top of the Premier League after taking 12 points from a possible 12, travel to Manchester City on Sunday.

"It was not to protect Costa for the game on Sunday, it was because he was not in condition to start the game," added Mourinho.

"Playing on Saturday, three days is not enough for him to recover."

Edited September 18, 201411 yr by RFC_CFC

Should we be concerned by José’s comments last night about Diego not being able to play 2-3 times in the one weak due to the hamstring issue?

I mean Atletico played him in almost every game last season home and in Europe, he will be key for us in the latter CL games (if we get there of course) as well as the EPL race. I hope it’s just a case of resting it as much as possible and hoping it resolves itself.

 

If it was a proper concern then Jose wouldn't mention it. Why reveal a weakness?

 

Costa has been an injury doubt for almost every game this season....and he's started all the league games and scored 7 goals.

I wouldn't mind Remy starting all our Champions League group games, unless we need a win from the last one or something. Costa can play the weekend Premier League games.

I wonder how long it will be before Costa is back to full fitness. Surely this won't be a concern for the whole time he's here...that wouldn't bode well for our long term aims for winning trophies. I agree with Blue Daze, probably part of the mind games (let's hope).

Everybody is ready to play, Diego [Costa] is not in the best condition but he will start. If he plays he won't play against Bolton. [in the League Cup on Wednesday]."

I understand concern about his fitness, but isn't it possible Jose saying what he did is partly him playing mind games with everyone? Not out of the picture I don't think.

Whatever it is I hope it's fixed soon.

Although we have a very good back up striker in Remy, I do believe Costa is key to our title challenge this season.

Agreed. I hope Remy becomes second choice ahead of Drogba. Not sure he is much more than a impact substitute now.

Unfortunately I get the sense that Diego's hamstring problems are going to linger on into the season. What he really needed was an extended rest this summer but with the World Cup n'all he never got the chance. I can't see that he's going to get that at any point this season though.

Unfortunately I get the sense that Diego's hamstring problems are going to linger on into the season. What he really needed was an extended rest this summer but with the World Cup n'all he never got the chance. I can't see that he's going to get that at any point this season though.

Like England he was in and out of that competition very quickly, so I guess he got a extended rest after all, as he was not troubled to much by playing time.

Edited September 20, 201411 yr by mbh

It's worrying that this hamstring issue seems to be recurring a lot. 

Good article about him on the BBC Sports pages at the moment.

A nice interview with Diego in The Sunday Times today:

CONTRARY to what many inhabitants of the Premier League seem to have been told, Diego Costa is not easily bugged. But bug him they will. He has had enough Evertonians in his earhole, enough people eager to decipher signs of him simulating fouls, that any idea he might have arrived here incognito, without a reputation, has vanished in the past month.

“There is,” he shrugs, “a perception people have of my character. Some will look for any way to try to take advantage. It’s happening here. It happened in Spain. Wherever I play it will always be like that.”

This is no appeal for sympathy, just the response to an inquiry into the frequent attempts to unsettle a prolific and pugnacious centre- forward that have been a feature of Costa’s initiation into Premier League football. Evidently the riling, so far, has not worked. As for the unsettling, here’s one definition of settling in perfectly — at the Etihad stadium, against Manchester City today, he will make his fifth appearance for the club with the only 100% record in the league, having scored in every start he has made for Chelsea.

That, by any reckoning, is settling in. It gets better. Costa warmed up with a goal in the victories against Burnley and Leicester City; then he struck a brace in the confrontational game — he and Seamus Coleman now have long-haul baggage — at Everton. Eight days ago he hit a hat-trick against Swansea City, his fifth, sixth and seventh Premier League goals. That’s a goal for every 47 league minutes Costa has been on an English pitch in Chelsea colours. There’s a message here for the would-be unsettlers and he spells it out: “If people provoke me, I’ll put goals past them.”

If you can’t unsettle Diego Costa with sledges and shoves, how might you tame him? City will have a plan, perhaps one devised by their manager, Manuel Pellegrini, in Spain, where his stay coincided with Costa’s. Pertinently, the coach might remember a Malaga v Atletico Madrid match from 18 months ago in which the compelling sub-plot was Costa, then of Atletico, versus Martin Demichelis, then of Pellegrini’s Malaga. Demichelis, robust and canny, properly, vividly unsettled Costa. The Atletico striker was substituted after an hour of a bruising 0-0 draw to prevent him collecting a second yellow card or worse.

The recollection of that fixture prompts a grin from Costa. “Demichelis? I think people see how great a player he is and know the kind of defender he is. Yes, I’ve played against him, both wanting to win at all costs, but then he also became my teammate at Atletico and he’s a great guy.” Briefly they were colleagues during the 2013 close-season in which Demichelis joined Atletico, free, from Malaga and, within weeks, was called to City by Pellegrini for more than £4m.

Once upon a time, all of Costa’s summers at Atletico used to be as unsettled, as to-and-fro as that. He would check in for pre-season and inevitably check out before the end of August, to go on loan or on a buy-back deal. It happened again and again, through his late teens and early 20s. He was lent to Braga, in Portugal, the club who had first found him; leased to Celta Vigo; borrowed by Albacete; warehoused with Real Valladolid; lent to Rayo Vallecano.

The polishing of this rough diamond has taken time. But if the jewel still has some abrasive edges that is part of the appeal. Throughout his career Costa has had to earn and appreciate his privileges. He still carries the traits of a warrior who comes, as Jose Mourinho, Chelsea’s beaming manager, said last month, “from a place beyond the sunset”.

The spells in obscurity formed him. Beneath the rugged professional is a reflective enough individual to realise this, to ponder how setback fathered success, made him so driven. “I suppose I am not the type of person who thinks, ‘Aw, I dunno, things are just getting on top of me’,” he says. “I always make a big effort, fight with all my strength, make the best of a situation, always want to win. But I believe anyone in life, everyone in the world, no matter what work they do, should think of wanting to get on, to win, to improve. So it’s not that I think I’m any different to most people.”

Felipe Luis, his friend and teammate, says the instant impact at Chelsea, the eighth European club Costa has represented since he left Brazil in his teens, ought to surprise nobody, given his peripatetic past. “Look where he started,” says the new Chelsea left- back. “And look at how he suffered in his career, how he never needed to adapt. He always goes and scores, wherever he is, just wants to play the best he can. That mentality makes it really easy for the clubs that have had him.

“The way he has grown is huge,” adds Felipe. “I’ve known him for five years and every year he is better and has more confidence.”

Even despite the rejection of repeatedly being told to play outside the club, Atletico, who owned him? “He was the one who wanted to go on loan,” Felipe says, “because he wanted to prove, first for himself and then for the other clubs he was a good player and that he deserved a spot at Atletico.

“Not all players are like that. It is not easy going to a new club, with new partners on the field. Everything is new, especially here, with the physical part of the game, which is really different [in England]. But for Diego, it’s easy because he’s a ‘top five’ player.” Top five? “I have no doubt he will be top five in the world and one day be up for the Ballon d’Or. He deserves it.”

Felipe first came to know Costa in 2009-10, when the striker was 21 and some way down the queue for the centre-forward position at Atletico, behind Diego Forlan and a maturing Sergio Aguero. When they moved on, Radamel Falcao came in. A pattern developed: if he wasn’t out on loan Costa seemed destined to act as a sidekick to superstars. He was the elbows-out, ego-reined-in maker of penalty-box space for more glamorous finishers.

Leading Atletico to the Spanish title in May altered that perception. Costa, at last the spearhead of Atletico’s attack, towered in the club’s best season this century, eclipsing what Forlan, Aguero and Falcao had contributed. He looks forward to today’s reunion with Aguero. “Now we’ll see who comes out on top,” he says. Aguero was a celebrated prodigy at Atletico, Costa a slow-burner. “I knew when Sergio was at Atletico, he was ‘God’,” he recalls. “And I loved watching him. He is, for me, the best I saw play.” Between Costa’s loan spells, he and Aguero were colleagues for a season. “He was the best as a teammate. I learnt a lot playing alongside him.”

He should today learn more about a Premier League that must have seemed compliant so far, for all its provocateurs, up against City. “They’re one of the real rivals for us, candidates for the title,” Costa says. “We have to have the right mentality from the start.”

He may also find the one-to-one duels at the Premier League’s summit more unsettling than his jousts up to now, especially if his old nemesis Demichelis breathes down his neck. “The reality is, for the moment, I haven’t had any really physical battles,” Costa says, without sounding boastful. “Things have been going well. I’m enjoying it.

It's only a matter of time before he gets sent off.

 

He had his hands round Pablo's neck. That's a red.

It's only a matter of time before he gets sent off.

He had his hands round Pablo's neck. That's a red.

Oh no, I don't want ever to witness that game that he gets sent off on!! it will be painful to watch....

It's only a matter of time before he gets sent off.

 

He had his hands round Pablo's neck. That's a red.

All 3 pundits on MoTD2 tonight disagreed with that, and said it was Pablo who started the aggression following his blatant foul on Costa.

 

I was one of those who feared his so called temprement could be a problem, but so far I think he has handled himself admirably. The match highlights this evening showed he took quite a battering in todays game, City were at times quite thuggish.

City were clearly targetting Costa today. They put in a very physical performance and to be fair I felt Kompany had the better of things. I thought Costa managed it all pretty well. He is new to the Premier League, he'll soon get a measure of how to face up to different defences.  

I don't buy this media narrative that he was in Kompany's pocket. We were defensive and didn't attack that well yet he still had a big part in the goal and on another day could have had a brace....... 

He was decent, didn't get the amount of service he had in the past 4 games with the game plan we had. Hope he has a good rest and carry on his form next Saturday

He was decent, didn't get the amount of service he had in the past 4 games with the game plan we had.

 

And he still almost pulled a goal out of thin air, unfortunately hitting the post

Didn't have the best of games yesterday but still managed to play a big part in our goal.

Also hit the post and had a decent header saved.

He really is going to be the key to our title challenge.