Can Diego Costa's fitness be relied on next season?

After a flying start to life in Premier League, Diego Costa was plagued by injuries towards the end

Only eight minutes into the biggest match of his career, the number 19 went up in lights on the fourth official’s board. As Diego Costa jogged across the Estadio da Luz turf, he was hit with the realisation that injury had struck again. Leaving the field and then made to watch his team have the Champions League trophy ripped from their grasp by their bitter rivals, it was a sad end to the season for him and also to his time at Atletico Madrid.

Since that emotional night, the sight of the Spanish striker leaving the field as a substitute has become a regular sight. A talented fighter on the pitch, his body seemingly never quite having the legs to keep up with his thirst for competition.

Costa has showcased his tenacious ability and predatory instinct at Chelsea, his goals helping secure the club’s first Premier League title in five years. After his fast start, though, where he had scored 11 league goals before December, hamstring trouble and the occasional disciplinary issue caused his form to somewhat stutter for the remainder of the campaign.

Despite securing the title, Costa surprisingly only managed one league goal in the last two months of the season. With this in mind, it isn’t a surprise that Jose Mourinho is targeting at least one striker during the transfer window. It is highly doubtful the Portuguese coach can rely as heavily on his Brazilian-born star as he has had to in the past.

Losing out on a chance to make history

In 2013-14, Costa had contributed so much to get Atletico Madrid to only their second ever Champions League final. Scoring eight European goals and becoming Diego Simeone’s goal-scoring battering ram, when it came to the last moment, the chance to make history, the delicate nature of his fitness was exposed to the world.

Of course, it still didn’t stop Chelsea completing a £32 million deal for him two months later. His exploits in his last season in Spain, and the responsibility placed on his shoulders in his first season in England, look to have taken their toll on his body since.

Luckily, the disruption caused by Costa’s fitness wasn’t enough to scupper his team’s trophy-winning plans, as it had Atleti’s European dream, but there will surely now be concerns in West London that he needs assistance up front. Especially if a more serious assault on Europe is expected.

He ended his debut season in England with 20 goals in 26 matches, but interestingly he was still substituted 17 times, indicating that even when he began a game from the start, his minutes were being managed from day one. Costa clocked up 2083 Premier League minutes, which is a sharp drop from his last season in Spain where he completed 2960 minutes. Appearing in the equivalent of almost 10 matches more is significant, and perhaps indicates the impact one year in the Premier League has had on Costa.

Although Chelsea will be hoping his minutes on the field do not tail off any further, they will leave nothing to chance and surely look to strengthen their goal-scoring options. In addition to the worries around Costa, Didier Drogba’s one year deal has not been extended, and assessing the usage of Loic Remy perhaps reveals a lack of confidence Mourinho has in the French striker.

Although they won the trophy, Remy was used sporadically in the League Cup with only one start and one substitute appearance. Similarly, you may have expected more minutes for him in the Champions League, but he mustered only an hour of football in the competition, leaving almost all of the strain to be shared between Costa and Drogba.

Turning to Falcao

As far as what’s in store this summer, Chelsea look set to turn to Radamel Falcao; the striker expected to arrive on loan from Monaco after the Copa America. Not many will be confident he is a reliable stand-in to Costa, but comments from the Chelsea manager point to his commitment to turning the Colombian’s fortunes around, "if I can help Falcao reach his level again, I will do it.” An uncharacteristically sentimental Mourinho also stated "it hurts me that people in England think that the real Falcao is the one we saw at Manchester United."

Whether this is a convenient confidence boost designed to help Falcao put his poor season at Old Trafford behind him, it sounds as though he will be tasked with shouldering the main burden when Costa is forced to take a rest.

Under Louis Van Gaal, the former Atletico Madrid man also struggled with both fitness and adapting to the Premier League. There was little evidence to suggest he has consigned the serious knee injury suffered in October 2014 to the past. In 26 matches for United last season, which included 12 off the bench, he found the net on only four occasions, looking completely lost at times.

Mourinho’s ability to get more from his new striker may prove key in Chelsea’s quest to retain their title. It would be a minor miracle should he succeed, such has been the failure of Falcao’s time in England so far.

Falcao’s latest loan move will see him reunite with a former Atleti team-mate. He played alongside Costa for the 2012-13 season, where they scored a combined 38 La Liga goals between them. He was their main threat back then, scoring 28 of the pair’s goals. In three years their respective roles have reversed, and it will be Costa assuming his position as main goal threat when fit.

Falcao’s level of contribution almost entirely depends on whether his fellow striker can maintain his fitness. At the moment, there are no guarantees of that.