Chelsea might be at the top of the league table at the moment with a lead of seven points over second placed, Tottenham, in the Premier League table. Ever since their 3-0 thumping at the hands of their arch rivals in the shape of Arsenal, Antonio Conte’s tactical ramifications have worked wonders as everything he touched seemed to get transformed into gold. Alas! The months of respite are on the edge of devastation owing to the “bad boy” of their side not doing any favours to his ill-fame.
Diego Costa appeared to be a changed man this season. Keeping his tantrums and misbehaving attitude in check (well, more often than not!), the 28-year-old has engineered a phenomenon season so far on the pitch, banging 14 goals with an accuracy of 61%, creating 5 assists and creating 28 chances to ensure that the Blues make a rollicking pursuit in their quest to reclaim the league silverware. Chelsea are undoubtedly the frontrunners but will they be so in the coming months or so?
Costa has been, once again, deriving the limelight for wrong reasons; this time with respect to links to the Far East where the lucrative pastures seem to amaze many players. The front man is unsettled at the moment and is completely wasting as to what could have been the best season of his Chelsea career. As a matter of fact, Conte kept him out of his squad which ran riot against defending champions, Leicester City, where they humiliated the Foxes with a thumping 3-0 win. However, thoughts on Costa’s future are something which is troubling them.
Costa has been training on his own at Cobham which implies that the manager’s shares the view that such a player should be refrained from integrating with the other Blues’ players at this point. Apart from Chinese outfit, Tianjin Quanjian, the Spaniard is under the radar of two La Liga heavyweights as well. FC Barcelona and Atlético Madrid are believed to be keeping a close tab on Chelsea’s striker after understanding the diabolical situation which is persistently hovering over the Stamford Bridge.
With interest coming from his former side, Atlético Madrid, due to their fear of losing their star, Antonio Griezmann, in the summer transfer window, Barcelona’s interest to acquire the in-form striker is quite shocking at the onset. Nonetheless, the scenario is spicing up at the Chelsea camp and it would be interesting to see which of these big sides have the last laugh.
