The
Premier League has seen many great strikers over the years but few have been
as clinical as Diego Costa for Chelsea so far this season. Adam Bate looks
at the numbers...
Having attended Stamford Bridge with a West Brom supporter last weekend, it
was curious to hear him enthuse about the chance to see Diego Costa in the
flesh.
For while Eden Hazard is a visceral experience to enrich the senses, Costa
is more of a brooding presence stalking the fringes of your attention.
Hardly involved. And then comes the goal. It’s less of a spectacle than
you’d expect of a matador from Madrid, the killing stroke delivered instead
like a bullet to the brain.
The strike against West Brom on Saturday was Costa’s 11th Premier League
goal of the season. Of the 10 other players who’ve found the net five times
or more this season only Charlie Austin and Diafra Sakho have had fewer
touches or attempted fewer passes. It’s a clue that Costa is not acting as a
link-up man at Chelsea. But there is more than one way to be a presence on
the pitch.
Partnerships aren’t all about Xavi and Iniesta playing keep-ball. Jamie
Carragher spoke on Monday Night Football of the relationship Steven Gerrard
enjoyed with the likes of Michael Owen, Fernando Torres and Luis Suarez,
able to catch their movement in the corner of his eye or just instinctively
predict their plans. It doesn’t require a childhood shared at La Masia to
forge a bond on the field. Good players get it.
Cesc Fabregas has that connection with his international team-mate. He’s
already into double figures for Premier League assists this season and has
created 38 chances for his team. Opta defines nine of those as clear-cut –
more than anyone else – and that
’s
due in part to his symbiotic relationship with Costa. The powerful forward
is not necessarily a link man but he is certainly a target – the one Jose
Mourinho said in the summer they’d been “waiting for” all year.
Missing link
Chelsea goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer agrees. “He’s something that we’ve lacked
after Didier Drogba left the club,” he told Sky Sports in midweek. “That was
missing a little bit and this season you’ve seen the benefits of having a
player of that quality – a guy that doesn’t do a lot for certain parts of
the game and then all of a sudden crops up and scores a vital goal. We’re
taking our chances more this season.”
When Schwarzer says ‘we’ he might just as accurately say Costa. The striker
has transformed Chelsea and the impact has been startlingly swift. Ruud van
Nistelrooy, a predator of similar ilk, could hardly be said to have started
slowly at Manchester United but his first 10 Premier League games yielded
five goals. Luis Suarez scored four; the aforementioned Drogba only three.
Even Sergio Aguero, who began with a brace off the bench, ‘only’ managed
nine. Costa has 11.
Unsurprisingly, among the Premier League’s top goalscorers this season Costa
has the best shooting accuracy of all of them, hitting the target with over
80 per cent of his attempts.
He has the best conversion rate too, finding the net with an incredible 42
per cent of his shots. In short, he’s been lethal.
Of course, that’s partly a reflection of the quality of chances Chelsea are
fashioning for him. But as Schwarzer suggests, they still require putting
away and Costa is doing that better than anyone. Aguero has had 15 clear
chances to score, netting eight. Costa has had 15 and scored 11 of them.
The Opta data shows that Torres, Demba Ba and Samuel Eto’o all missed more
clear chances than they scored for Chelsea last season. The Blues still
finished as the division’s third-highest scorers but with 30 goals from the
first 12 games this year they now top that chart and are the second-highest
scorers in the Champions League too.
It’s called the Costa effect. And while there are many reasons why Chelsea
are the Premier League’s strongest side, for the sheer brutality of his
numbers, there is every chance Costa will be the difference maker that
history – and our friend from West Brom – remembers.
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