Costa Deal Done: Jose Mourinho is confident in the Brazil-born Spain International

Diego Costa’s deal has finally been confirmed despite of the striker’s lackluster performances in the World Cup, something which led to Spain’s shock group stage elimination. Yet, this deal is clearly an indication that Costa still has his new manager Jose Mourinho’s faith. As rightly understood by many people, Diego Costa’s ability is not to be judged by his world cup show as he struggled to fit into Spain’s passing style. And as popular belief goes, Costa is set to be the central figure in Chelsea’s attack with the midfielders and wingers supplying regular service.

La Liga’s third highest goalscorer, closely behind Ronaldo and Messi, Diego Costa is known to have panache for clinical finishing. His key attributes are his physical strength, good ball control under pressure and accurate and powerful shooting. Costa’s style of play requires him to be dependent on regular service, and he generally doesn’t disappoint in the penalty box, as he looks to shoot with the drop of a hat. He is also a good aerial threat and has great work ethic in a direct attacking game.

Some of Costa’s weaknesses are that he is over aggressive at times and can lose his cool very quickly. Costa works very hard on the pitch, but that also leads to him getting injured at regular intervals. Last season Costa was very injury prone towards the Business end, and he unfortunately limped off injured after being played despite being semi-fit in the Champions League final. Costa is a pure target man, something which restricts the flair in the final third, as he is more likely to maintain a central position and force the attacking midfielders to cross to him rather than shoot themselves. This can be great in a way, but sometimes lead to be a predictable style and block Chelsea’s creativity.

This transfer gives Chelsea, the striker that they wanted all along and it also means unwanted star Demba Ba would most likely leave the club. Fernando Torres is likely to play second fiddle to Costa unless Chelsea retain Lukaku or sign another striker. The inclusion of Fabregas in the team offers a new dimension to the Costa deal as Chelsea finally have the look of their title winning side in Mourinho’s first stint.

On  paper, the deal looks very reasonable and a great one for Chelsea considering the talent in the player and the opportunity that the club is providing him. But Chelsea have had a poor record of maintaining the form of their strikers off late. With Torres, Eto’o, Ba and even Sturridge being the strikers in ordinary form after Didier Drogba’s final years in Chelsea, Costa would be in a tough situation from the start itself.

Expectations would be very high on him by the Stamford Bridge faithful as he is expected to bring back the killer instinct that Drogba and Anelka had in their days in the recent past. Whether he’ll be the man Chelsea  needed all this while, time will tell. But the deal does speak volumes about the confidence the Chelsea manager has in Costa and his ability, which is why the Portuguese tactician is not afraid to take the gamble.