In what was an overall terrible night of football for Chelsea FC at the Bridge, Diego Costa stood out among the rest. Unfortunately, what stood out was not his performance as a professional, but his lack thereof.
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In 2014, Chelsea FC fans were quick to ignore his childish behavior on the pitch, because he only showed flashes of it in the midst of his rampant goal scoring. Even when his demeanor earned himself a ban, most fans stood behind him, saying his confrontational style is part of his game, and jumping on the bandwagon of not apologizing for having a rougher player in the squad.
After the ban, and the turn of the year, the goal/foolishness ratio took a sharp turn for the worst. Diego Costa has not scored in the EPL since January, and this dip in form has increased his on-pitch frustrations. Sergio Aguero has now caught up to him on goals, even though he is coming off a bad injury. Meanwhile, Hazard, Willian, and the Chelsea FC defenders have had to pick up the goal scoring slack, while Costa fumes around the pitch, shoving and kicking whenever the referee turns his back.
Against PSG we saw the worst of it. From the very beginning of the game, when he hit David Luiz while the referees looked away, to getting into somebody’s face after every single foul, Costa showed how willing he is to let his emotions cloud his game and his judgement.
Instead of getting better after having time to cool off during half time, he got worse, and ended up shoving Marquinhos to the ground, who had absolutely nothing to do with his run-in with Maxwell. The only reason he escaped a red is because of the terrible referee, who turned his back on the players right after a controversial foul. Nobody escaped his temper. Even Yohann Cabaye, who was not part of the PSG squad on the night, caught some of the backlash after the last whistle blew.
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Did he at least justify his temper with a performance? Not even slightly. Sure, of the 15 Chelsea FC shots, 6 were his, but only 3 were on target, and none were quality. His performance was beautifully summed up by his last shot on the second half of extra time, which soared nowhere near the goal, as if he was trying to hit a home-run. When he was not taking wild shots, he was losing possession (7 times, mostly outside the box), and making dubious appeals for fouls.
Costa’s dip in form, combined with his bratty, violent behavior, is damaging the fluidity of Chelsea FC’s game, and the image of the club in general. He is a pristine striker when in form, but quickly proving to not be worth the attitude problems. I doubt that Mourinho will give up his star striker for these reasons, but I do hope that, for the sake of the future of the club, Costa somehow learns to act like a professional, or that his dip in form is permanent, and it forces Chelsea to cash in on him, and seek other options in that department.