The Weekend Interview: Diego Costa #viaChelseaOfficial Diego Costa, who netted a hat-trick in his first meeting with Saturday afternoon’s opponents Swansea, talks to the official Chelsea website about goals and changing-room character… There has been so much to admire about Diego Costa’s first six months as a Chelsea player. His industry throughout a game, the threat of his pace forcing opposition defenders deep, his ball retention ability before bringing any of the array of talented footballers around him into play, and as we saw recently against Watford in the FA Cup, his driving play from a wide position ultimately leading to goals for team-mates. But it is the goals he has scored that have naturally grabbed the headlines. In only the 17th minute of the first game up at Burnley, the new centre-forward got Chelsea’s scoring for the season off to a start, and with 15 goals to his name by mid-January he is the Barclays Premier League’s topscorer. Goals, therefore, are where Diego Costa’s chat with the official Chelsea website begins. ‘As a striker, obviously you live and get judged by the goals you score,’ he acknowledges. ‘It is good to get off the mark straight away but more than that it is about the team performance and the hard work. The first goal could have been scored in the second or the third game, or I could have scored in the first and gone through a dry period with no goals, but what is important is the dedication and the hard work and the belief that we can always do better. ‘If my first goal didn’t come in the first few games I would have still been confident. That is because the team we have is such a great one and the ability of the players that play in midfield and feed the striker is very high, so I always knew goals would come. It is just about hard work and togetherness. ‘Fifteen goals is a good mark and I hope to improve it, but more important than my goals is the team is winning. ‘Of course it is nice to be the topscorer but when I came here my aim was to win the league. The most important thing is the club going well, like we did in the other leagues I played in, and it would be nice at the end of the season to see the team doing well as well as the individual.’ There has been a rich variety to the goals netted by the 26-year-old. His first four were split equally between right- and left-foot shots and his fifth was a header against this weekend’s opponents Swansea. He scored a hat-trick that afternoon with the other two goals both six-yard-box shots. The lob against Arsenal and another London derby strike against West Ham on Boxing Day burn bright in the memory, but one common theme is how often Diego Costa has been in the right place at the right time, to take advantage of a rebound off the post (as at Burnley, pictured above), or the goalkeeper pushing out rather than holding a shot, or one of his team-mate’s efforts on goal falling his way. He has been a genuine penalty-area predator. He ponders the question of whether it is all down to natural instinct. ‘I have not been a player who plays a lot in the box,’ Diego Costa points out. ‘I always played from outside the area, bringing the team forward, sometimes with individual moves, but I think that being in the box at the right time in the right place, that comes as a consequence of the hard work during the game and sometimes even from the stage in your career. ‘It is probably happening more now but the main thing is sometimes I bring the play forward with the team, sometimes individually and sometimes it happens to be a rebound or the ball comes off the post.’ When encouraged to list his favourite Chelsea strikes so far, Diego Costa agrees the Stamford Bridge goals against Arsenal and West Ham were beautiful on the eye. ‘The last one against Newcastle was a nice goal too, there are a few that were nice,’ he adds. ‘Especially when the team wins and you score it becomes a special goal. When the team loses and I score it is not so special and you can look at it in the sense that okay, a player has been at a club five years and may have been topscorer three or four times, but how many titles has the team won? If no titles then being topscorer does not matter much individually. ‘The most important is to win the titles first. We haven’t played any finals yet or any game that really marks the season. If we play a final and I have scored then that becomes the special goal.’ As well as goals, it is clear our summer signing has brought plenty of smiles to the Chelsea changing room. You only have to listen to any of Diego Costa’s team-mates when asked about what it is like having him at the club, or who is the funniest here, to know that is the case. It is a sure sign of someone who quickly felt at home. ‘As the structure of the club is one of the best in the world, it has been easy to settle,’ he confirms. ‘Everyone has welcomed me here very well, there are a lot of Brazilians as well as Spanish people and all the staff are really friendly. ‘It is always nice to have a good sense of humour. It is always nice to have a good, positive changing room where you can leave any problems behind when you get here, but it is not just me - there are also other characters in the changing room who are really funny like Didier and Eden. ‘With a united changing room and a positivity, the great character from all the individuals, it makes it easier. Especially because the season is going well, that helps a lot to have good moods among ourselves and we see the individual qualities. A changing room that is really happy and positive is halfway to a title, it is always good to have that.’
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 18:52:31 +0000
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