Over the course of this transfer window, Chelsea performed with what many consider to be the business savvy necessary to take home the BPL title.
Selling defender David Luiz for a ludicrous fee of roughly $80 million allowed the Blues to make a move for the marquee midfielder Cesc Fabregas from Barcelona, as well as a dual swoop from Atletico Madrid where they acquired left back Filipe Luis and attacker Diego Costa.
After the oft-forgotten “other” team in Madrid sent shockwaves through European soccer by winning La Liga and heartbreakingly losing in extra time to their crosstown rivals in the UEFA Champions’ League Final, Diego Simeone’s side lost 3 crucial starters to London, being the two in addition to Chelsea’s recalling of Thibault Courtois from loan.
In this nascent season, though, it’s been the Spanish striker Costa who has cemented himself the quickest as a force to be reckoned with in England.
After last year’s controversy of officially switching his nationality from Brazil to Spain ultimately backfiring, seeing as Spain didn’t even advance from its group at the World Cup, Diego Costa has appeared to be a man on a mission for his new club, scoring at a torrential pace of seven goals in four games, most recently a hat trick against Swansea City on Saturday.
Jose Mourinho’s arsenal of attackers experienced massive levels of overturn during this offseason, with Samuel Eto’o and Romelu Lukaku heading off to Goodison Park for Everton, and Fernando Torres ending his miserable London stay with a loan move to AC Milan.
However, Costa may not even be the most popular striker to arrive at Stamford Bridge this summer, with club hero Didier Drogba returning at the ripe old age of 36. In Mourinho’s free flowing 4-2-3-1 system, with the 3 attacking midfielders of Eden Hazard, Oscar, and Andre Schurrle being able to roam about whatever part of their opponents’ half they wish, Costa has been the target man for these 3 creative maestros, in addition to his compatriot Fabregas bringing a bit of tiki-taka offense with him from Barcelona.
With last year’s BPL Golden Boot winner in Luis Suarez having moved on from Liverpool to the aforementioned Catalonian club, Costa will look to fill the void, although he will face staunch competition from the likes of Sergio Aguero, Daniel Sturridge, and Robin Van Persie.
For now, however, Diego Costa’s brute physicality, combined with the technical finesse of Chelsea’s midfield, is wreaking havoc on opposing defenses, and that does not seem as if it will change for a long time to come.