Diego Costa has discussed his often questionable antics on the pitch.
Chelsea FC striker Diego Costa is no stranger to controversy. His aggressive and bullish approach to football often results in incidents that has the press and viewing public lamenting him.
Speaking to BBC program Football Focus, Costa defended his style of play, stating that matters on the field should be isolated from those off it.
"But I think that you transform when you cross the white line, you’re not the same person as off it. I give no quarter and I ask for none…Afterwards, when the match is over, I have my family and my friends. I have fun like a normal person."
Costa is far from a normal person on the field. He scratches and claws to get the upper hand on his opponent. Sometimes it seems as though he is willing to do anything within the bounds of British law to gain a footballing advantage.
Usually in the role of a target man, he can been seen tussling with centre-backs as he tries to hold up the ball for his team. This is more often than not accompanied by flailing arms and elbows in antics that test the referee’s conviction.
Costa was handed a three-match ban earlier this season after grappling with/swinging a forearm at Arsenal defender Gabriel Paulista. This marked the second occasion that Costa had been banned in 2015. The striker was reprimanded for stamping on Emre Can’s leg during the second leg of the Capital One Cup semi-final with Liverpool.
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Meanwhile, Costa literally throttled Manchester City full-back Pablo Zabaleta in 2014 after viewing the Argentinian’s challenge as more zealous than necessary.
Nevertheless, while the Spaniard is trying to make a case for his playing style, he is also trying to convince people that his manic antics do not transcend his personality away from the field.
Whether you believe him or not, his comments do remind us of the fact that it is all just a game. At whatever level you play, you are expected to give all that you have for 90 minutes, then shake hands at the end, leaving everything on the pitch.
For a professional footballer, the 90 minutes is their pay ticket, hence it seems unfair to castigate someone who is trying to best do his job and maximise his earnings. Having said that, many Blues fans will admit that Costa’s disciplinary risks and troubles have not been worthwhile in this campaign.
Costa has seemed more intent on starting a fight rather than scoring goals and while the former can be tolerated when the latter is occurring, that has not been the case so far. Chelsea are leaning heavily on the striker to carry the side in terms of attacking production and incidents like the Gabriel one hurt the side. The backup Blues front men were unable to deputise sufficiently and Chelsea failed to win a single game during Costa’s suspension.
However, he bagged a goal at the weekend and will now hopefully focus more on his primary charge: to get the ball into the back of the net.
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