PARTING SHOT!
Conte won’t taint my time with Chelsea
DIEGO COSTA took a parting shot at his old Chelsea boss Antonio Conte as he landed in Spain last night to sign for Atletico Madrid.
Asked if he had got his own way in his battle of wills with Chelsea this summer that saw him refuse to return to training from Brazil, Costa said: ‘No. I never wanted it to happen this way.
‘I have a special affection for the people at Chelsea. Not for one person am I going to have the image of everything I did there tainted. To a certain extent they also made it easier because they were happy for me to leave.’
Asked what kind of shape he was in after his long break back home in Brazil, Costa said: ‘Normal for someone who has been out of action for three months. I’ve done a little bit of training.’
MARK HUGHES is sorry to see the back of Diego Costa and has questioned whether Chelsea might also miss the Spain striker’s mastery of dark arts. Chelsea have been given three red cards in five Premier League games after David Luiz was dismissed for a late lunge against Arsenal last Sunday. The Stoke manager, whose side face Chelsea today, said: ‘I think they’ve got more sendings-off in the opening five games as in the whole of last year. ‘If you look at Costa, he was brilliant at taking it up to the edge, then stepping back, and it affected opposition teams. Maybe they haven’t quite got that ability in terms of getting the dark arts right.’ Costa was booked 31 times in three seasons at Chelsea but only sent off once. Hughes, a combative striker himself, believes English football will miss Costa, who is set to complete his return to Atletico Madrid after a summer stand-off with Chelsea. ‘It’s a shame from a football fans’ point of view, it’s a loss to the Premier League,’ Hughes said. ‘I used to enjoy watching him play because he had an edge to him and the reaction of other players to him was really interesting. ‘That’s a skill in itself. You can take it right to the line and then step back and get other people into trouble because they haven’t got that skill to stop where they should do. ‘Whatever happened or why it happened, maybe both (Chelsea and Costa) should have got together and got a real positive out of it. He’s a top player and the Premier League should have top players playing in it.’