Chelsea linked with Europe's hottest forward

Liverpool were seriously interested over the summer, bidding £22 million, but Diego Costa remained with Atletico Madrid and in the end signed a contract extension through to 2018. But that hasn’t stopped Chelsea from registering their own interest, with the Daily Mirror claiming that Jose Mourinho is keen on a January deal as he remains unmoved by his current crop of strikers.

The 25-year-old scored 10 league goals and 20 in all competitions last season as he played quite superbly the role of second act to Radamel Falcao‘s headliner. When the Colombian left for Monaco, there was a question of whether Diego Simeone would get the kind of fantastic goal return he brought to the club. On current form, Diego Costa has answered that question with a resounding yes.

He has been wonderful this season, already matching his output last season by scoring a league-leading 10 goals in nine appearances and netting an additional two in one Champions League appearance versus Austria Vienna, including a magnificent solo effort where he ran half the length of the field before slotting the ball neatly and calmly under the goalkeeper and into the corner. In a vein of form so rich, it’s no wonder the big clubs are lurking, as they now realise just what Liverpool had stumbled onto. But how would he boost Chelsea’s frontline, goals aside?

Areas of the pitch where Costa creates his chances

He is a mobile striker who likes to dribble and has good link-up play. In fact, he often played in the position just behind Falcao last season. He enjoys dropping deep into midfield as well as drifting wide in order to get on the ball and drive at opponents before laying it off to a team-mate.

He attempted an average of 4.3 take-on’s per game last season and is currently averaging 3.9 this campaign, showing his confidence and desire to take on the opposition. It was this desire and confidence that helped him score that wonder goal in Vienna. The 37 chances he created last season, meanwhile, was up there with Atletico’s most creative players – Koke, Gabi, and Arda Turan. The impressive seven assists he got was second only to Koke’s tally of nine. This season, he has created 17 chances so far, tying him with Koke for the club’s joint-highest tally.

Chelsea aren’t lacking in creativity by any means, given their squad is brimming with top quality attacking midfielders. Costa’s addition will help them concentrate pressure around the goal mouth, increasing their chances of scoring. The likes of Oscar in particular, who is currently preferred as Mourinho’s No.10, loves getting into advanced positions. And with the Portuguese keen to invert his wide players, Diego Costa would also ensure that he provides decent shooting opportunities for the likes of Andre Schurrle, Eden Hazard,Willian, and Juan Mata when they cut inside onto their stronger foot.

One aspect of his link-up play that needs improving is his heading. He stands tall at 1.88 metres, but won just 35% of his headed duels last season and is doing even worse this season, winning just 17% of them so far. He is actually a good header of the ball–half of his league goal tally last season were headers–but he needs to do better when coming up against his opponents in order to win flick-on’s and provide knockdown’s.

Another aspect of his game that needs improving is his mentality. He is very aggressive, often to the point of being just downright silly with some of his actions. He tends to commit a lot of stupid fouls and other acts of petulance, picking up unnecessary cards as a result, puts his team at unnecessary risk.

He committed an average of two fouls per game last season and picked up a joint team-high 11 yellow cards for some of these fouls as well as other acts of ill-discipline. He has maintained that fouls per game average so far this season, unfortunately. He really has to simmer down. No doubt, that’s something Mourinho would be quick to address.

He certainly has his baggage, but he is showing with each passing game that he has the mentality and the ability to turn games on their head. Averaging just 1.2 shots per game last season, he had a conversion rate of 26.3%, which is quite good. Now that he is leading the line in Falcao’s absence, he has taken on the responsibility of primary goal-scorer, increasing his shots per game average to 2.9 and boasting an even better conversion rate of 38.5% so far.

With numbers like that, it’s no wonder world giants Spain and Brazil are desperate to get him to commit to them ahead of the World Cup. Mourinho would be fortunate to get him to commit to the Blues in January, but with the price tag reportedly set at upwards of £35 million, that seems unlikely.