It’s Easy To Forget: Chelsea’s Diego Costa Is Devilishly Good

There are few reputations in football as enduring as
that of the villain. The kicking, biting, poking and
general irksome behaviour of football’s villains
provides us with something that we love to hate.
Howls of derision and a lingering sense of injustice
are as much a part of going to watch the game as
the sensation of scoring goals. We love to believe
that the referee is biased against our team, that
some cosmic imbalance has damned us to defeat.
In this maelstrom of snark, Chelsea’s Diego Costa,
much like Luis Suarez before him, occupies the role
of the Premier League’s chief villain. He revels in
the side of the game that we love to be offended by
but also enjoy, even if sometimes secretly. An
important differentiating factor between Costa and
Suarez, it should be outlined, is that Costa’s role as
the villain comes purely from his careful treading of
the boundary of what is acceptable to the laws of
the football, rather than the issue of Suarez
compounding his reputation with a ban for racially
abusing Patrice Evra, of which much has been
written elsewhere. Costa’s villainy comes purely
from the pushing, elbowing, kicking, armpit-smelling
side of the game. He winds defenders up and he
sees that as one of the key aspects of his role as
Chelsea’s striker.
Amid the outpouring of scorn that Costa’s behaviour
often produces, it is easy to forget just how talented
a player he is. Last season did little for his
reputation, returning from pre-season overweight
and being cast, again, as one of the villains of Jose
Mourinho’s demise at Chelsea. Indeed, Costa was
deemed so disruptive to Mourinho’s final months at
Stamford Bridge that home fans booed him on his
first appearance after the manager’s dismissal. But
his performances so far this season, and his
opening season at Chelsea, not to mention his time
at Atletico Madrid, prove Costa’s quality. He is not
just a mindless provocateur, he is also a very gifted
striker.