Chelsea SHOULD have dropped Costa, but still Needed Him Eventually

It was the right decision. If you play like crap, then you deserve to get dropped. Diego Costa has been close to atrocious this season. The only thing of note about him has been how troublesome and aggressive he has been to players and the man in black with the whistle. He should have been benched a long time ago, but better late than never.






I've never been a fan of putting out teams without strikers, but if your striker is Diego Costa or Wayne Rooney, then you can get a pass. And Chelsea played the best football they have in the whole season without Costa in the team. They passed the ball well, looked resolute in defense and actually looked like a team with better chemistry where players somehow remembered how to play the sport. With the way that they played and just how much better they looked, if only they actually had a striker who knew what they were doing, then this would have been a routine win.

Costa can sulk and throw as many bibs and pizzas as he wants, but even he has to admit that he is been playing like utter nonsense. Bad control, no speed, horrible finishing, and the movement of a tortoise who just smoked three joints. It was remarkable that he was given the amount of games before Mourinho finally pulled the plug in order to make the team feel refreshed. And it worked...to an extent. As good as Chelsea were with some life being injected, they were missing that striking touch up front, and the biggest mistake that Mourinho made was not bringing Costa into the game about midway in that second half.

Chelsea looked the team more likely to score than Spurs, who were shut down. But it was too much to ask for Hazard, Pedro and Oscar to outmuscle physical defenders. That is where Costa would have been useful. Even as useless as he's been, I don't count a goal against Norwich, having the presence inside the 18-yard box would have meant less pressure off of Hazard, which would have perhaps allowed him to run into space to slot home a goal. His game is not playing with his back to a defender, but drifting in and out and being evasive, which he did really well in the game. He just needed that totem pole to play off of, which Mourinho did not have in the game, meaning the Spurs defenders could cope with the smaller and less physical attacking threats.


Promising for Chelsea, but they are not yet out of the relegation woods. They still aren't a top four team, and I'm waiting for that great performance that can boost the confidence of the entire team and spur them onto a long winning run. I think that is what they need. Fabregas and Costa are not helping and Mourinho has to take a serious decision on these two players and give a new and fresh look to his team. Maybe that is what he needs to learn, to break his own rules and try and diversify a little as you can't play the exact same way with the exact same players for three to five seasons. You have to change things up, which is what Ferguson was amazing at.


The aim is top four....NOT the title.



HH