TOM HOPKINSON Costa must look hard at Drogba and go for glory!
Follow us on Twitter: @peoplesport NOW Diego Costa’s s toys are firmly back in his pram, ram, a new challenge lies ahead at Chelsea.
And that is to put allll the doubts about his long-term futurere behind him and go on to cement his nameame in legend alongside the club’s last great striker, the colossal Didier Drogba. gba.
Spain star Costa has thehe same basic toolkit as his predecessor. r.
A physical brute of a man, he holds the ball up superbly, brings others into the game, opens up defences single- handedly and possesses ossesses the ability to score every kind d of goal.
Now he needs to put those ose talents to maximum use – and if he does that then he can be whatever he wants to be at Stamford Bridge.
The similarities betweenen Costa and Drogba aren’t limited d to their technical game.
Like Costa, the Ivorian’s undoubted quality in his early days in south- west London were often underminedd by an image problem.
In Drogba’s case, goingg down like a sack of spuds every y time he was touched irritated d the hell out of opposing fanss and a good few of his own, too.oo.
Advice
Costa, meanwhile, has arguably started more fights in emptypty rooms than Roy Keane and that combustibilitybustibility has often overshadowed what a good player he is.
Drogba sought advice about how he could win over the publicc from inside and outside the Chelsea dressing room.
And having taken it on board, he went on to become one of the greatest strikers to play not just foror Chelsea but in the Premier League era. ra.
For a long time this seasonason it looked as if Costa had tamed the e beast within under Antonio Conte.
Until the blip in Januaryary which saw him heavily linked with h a move to China, anyway.
But that, hopefully, is behind ehind him now and with a second Premier er League title in view you would hope e the sight of silverware has him fully focusedocused again.
What made Drogba such ch a great over the years was the fact he e wasn’t just a flat-track bully, but always ays scored in the biggest games, too. o.
Costa can rightly point to the fact that he has only reached a League e Cup Final with Chelsea. Bt But with ith an FA Cup quarter- f i nal against Manchester United around the corner,
the Double lurching into view an and nd a return to the C Champions LeagueL League all but gu guaranteed,uaranteed, those b bigi g games are co coming ming again. Drogba’sD Drogba’s record in them m was incredible. In n the 2005 League Cup Final, he scored to help Ch Chelseae l s ea beat Liverp Liverpoolpool 3-2 and in 2007 he stru struckuck both goals in a 2-1 victoryy over Arsenal to win the sa same ame competition. He notched again in the FA CupupCup Final that seasonseason, season, an extra- time winner as U Unitedit d were b beatent 2-1,21 h havingi scoredd a wonder goal against Barcelona the previous October to win 1-0 and help the Blues through the Champions League group phase.phase Chelsea may have lost the League Cu Cup Final in 2008, 2-1 to Tottenham, but for a long time that man’s goal had led the game. He struck twice in the second leg of