#ADAHABI-view: Diego Costa is Jose Mourinho’s pitbull but needs to rediscover his game's true bite.

With 82 minutes gone of Saturday’s contest at Stamford Bridge, off he came to a chorus of approval and chants of, “Diego, Diego”.

Diego Costa may have mustered one shot on target but to all intents and purposes his afternoon’s work had been done.

The first-half flashpoint with Laurent Koscielny and then Gabriel Paulista had effectively sealed the contest for Chelsea.
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Gabriel was naive to react the way he did but sometimes you have to bow down to human nature and accept why he kicked out. In fact, as the Brazilian left the field somewhat aggrieved, the overriding thought going through his mind was probably, “why didn’t I kick him harder”.

After all, the punishment would have been the same. 

Having spent the first-half of last season scoring goals at an impressive rate, Costa is now firmly settling into his role as Jose Mourinho’s pitbull on the field, his creator of chaos and destruction. 

Gamesmanship doesn’t even tell the half of it. Wind him up and let him go. It’s no great surprise a soon-to-be released biography of the 26-year-old by Spanish journalist Fran Guillen is entitled ‘Diego Costa: The Art of War’.

As Sun Tzu wrote in 513BC, for which Guillen’s book borrows its title: “All warfare is based on deception,” and advised, “If your opponent is of choleric temperament, seek to irritate him.”