Costa Brava? Who knows what he is

Diego Costa/Instagram

What a fickle creature football is. Lose two games on the spin and your team is "in a slump". Win two back-to-back and you're in the form of your life. Back in October, the Wednesday after Chelsea had magnificently taken the scalp of former manager José Mourinho's Manchester United, winning 4-0, they travelled across London to what will always be the Olympic Stadium, where West Ham unceremoniously dumped them out of the EFL Trophy, or whatever pseudo-American name some marketing types have come up with for the old League Cup.

That may have been a blip. In the Premier League, Chelsea were on their way in that remarkable 13-game unbeaten run, one which propelled Diego Costa to the top of the league goal-scoring chart, with 14 goals to date. 

This is the Costa who'd been a part of the previous season's malaise under Mourinho, the fiery Costa whose combustible side was rarely far from the surface, who had appeared to be easily provoked by cynical defenders, but was now showing a more mature, focused nature, channeling his fire into being what football people like to term "a handful" in the box.

Costa's prolific goal scoring this season appeared to coincide with Antonio Conte reporting that his star striker was contented, but also admitted that over the course of the summer the Brazilian had once more questioned life at Chelsea. Conte appeared to have settled him, getting him to knuckle down on what he does best, removing the tendency to be a red card waiting to be shown, and getting arguably the best football out of the Brazilian since he signed for the club. A rumoured bust-up between Costa and Conte after the striker was subbed during the home fixture with Leicester in October was dismissed as 'one of those things' that happens all the time in football. Even the very public disagreement between Costa and Pedro during the post-New Year game with Tottenham that ended the unbeaten run was dismissed by fans and club insiders as merely a sign of how badly the players want to win. So, hunky dory then?

Well, perhaps not. Last night's shock revelation that Costa will not play any part in today's visit to the King Power Stadium appeared amidst a flurry of claims and counter-claims amongst pundits. The story emerged in Italy, with Sky's Italian affiliate claiming that Costa had had a robust exchange of views with one of the club's fitness coaches during training this week, leading to Conte allegedly telling the striker to "go to China". By coincidence, Costa's agent - the omnipresent Jorge Mendes - had been seen in the company of Tianjin Quanjian's billionaire chairman Shu Yuhui, with reports circling that the Chinese Super League club was offering the 28-year-old striker a contract worth a staggering £570,000 a week. More stories emerged claiming that Costa himself had ordered his reps to get him a move to China, following the lucrative deals done with Oscar and John Mikel Obi.

Diego Costa/Instagram

And then Costa confused everybody by posting a rah-rah photograph on Instagram of him and Pedro celebrating scoring against Tottenham with the simple caption "Come on Chelsea!!!", followed by a blue heart. Still, though, this walks in the land of ambiguity: such a footballer's social media post isn't much more sincere than a public display of badge kissing. "Come on Chelsea!!!" could be heard a number of ways: the barely concealed frustration of "Come ON Chelsea!!!", the wearisome "Oh, come on Chelsea...", or the perfunctory "Come on Chelsea!!!" that periodically comes from the stands during a lull in noise. Then there is the question of timing, and whether it had been Costa, at all, who'd posted the picture. Unlike many of his Chelsea teammates, Costa is an infrequent presence on Instagram, but when he has appeared it's obviously been him (earlier in the week he'd posted an oblique video clip of the frozen Cobham training ground first thing in the morning, while over Christmas he'd posted images of him relaxing with friends, possibly back in Brazil). Significantly, Chelsea captain John Terry and teammate Cesc Fàbregas (supplier of many of Costa's goals) were quick to 'like' the post. It's hard to imagine either, especially Terry, would endorse a player badly at odds with the club.

So, back to the fickle nature of football. One minute Costa is throwing bibs at his manager and failing to turn up as a presence, the next he is banging 'em in. One minute he is homesick for Madrid, the next he is fine and settled. And, then, news of a bust-up, rumours of a "lower back problem", his manager telling him where to pursue his career, and the player getting dropped from a key away fixture with the imperative of maintaining or even extending Chelsea's five-point lead at the top.

Whatever the truth, whatever the actual facts, there has clearly been a disturbance in The Force at Stamford Bridge. Perhaps this all a load of nothing, and after Conte - who is not afraid to apply the iron rod if necessary - restores Costa after a token suspension, all will resume as if nothing has happened. Roman Abramovich is said to be insisting that Costa is going nowhere for at least the remaining two years of his contract, but we've seen Costa more or less down tools before. The trouble is, Chelsea lack options: they will probably play Hazard through the middle today, with Willian and Pedro flanking; Michy Batshuayi - who cost more than Costa - has yet to convince the Italian that he is a worthy rival to Costa; and prolific 19-year-old prospects Dominic Solanke and Tammy Abraham are amongst the massed ranked of Chelsea youngsters out on loan. Conte's rumoured interest in Swansea's Fernando Llorente may have just cranked itself up a significant notch.

If, though, Costa's head has been turned by the eye-watering amount of money on offer from China, Chelsea might just have to accept that living by the sword means dying by it. We've had to put up with plenty of "rent boy" trollery since Abramovich's millions transformed the club's fortunes, with generous remuneration being part of the Chelsea operating model. One might argue that the Chinese largesse is merely free market predation at work. There would be no point complaining about Costa's head turning when plenty of Chelsea players have been drawn to the club by much the same methodology.

Perhaps it will just turn out to be a storm in a Costa coffee cup. But I'm not so sure. On this occasion I do think the smoke goes with a fire. Antonio Conte either needs to put it out, or let it burn itself out, and take Costa's contribution to Chelsea's title bid with it. Or he bags himself yet another striker, and hope that the magic the Costa has been applying can be instantly replicated to keep the title push alive.