It appears that Diego Costa will be costing his Chelsea even more over the next few weeks. I said it in my write up a few weeks ago that all I saw in him then was a sumo
Wrestler or championship boxer, as opposed to a striker when I look in his eyes and his performances at times
What has been on the cards and threatening to happen for the past few weeks has finally happened at Stamford Bridge on Saturday: Costa on the rampage with his fists and he is facing a 3 match ban just as he was beginning to re-enact his form of last season
Costa’s antics actually overshadow what should have been a calming down of nerves after two good games in three days and a powerful display against a strong Arsenal side.
For how long would he keep letting his team mates and manager down?
But how long would the FA put up with Costa before giving him a lengthy layoff?
How long before Jose Mourinho runs out of patience?
How long before the Roman King brings out his cheque to find a reliable cool headed assassin to replace him?
Diego needs to change otherwise he is fast becoming a liability more than an asset in the Chelsea squad: each time he takes 2 steps forward, he steps on broken glass and takes 10 backwards and then gets into trouble
Jose Mourinho did what any manager will do defending him in public but I know deep within, the phones will be ringing non-stop, from agents to sponsors to coach and club hierarchy
its high time someone has a chat with the hot headed Striker; the fact that he has been injured many times in the last few years he has never really truly found consistency to his game. Yeah 20 goals in one season is a good return but 20 goals in one and half season would not be a good return if he keeps missing games like this until Christmas
Costa needs to get back to playing football because when is playing football and is on song with the fire inside of him he is unplayable.
He should let his football do the talking and not his hands, and Jose needs to sort Diego out before he ends all title ambitions
BILIC SHOWING HOW ITS DONE AGAINST THE BIG BOYS
When the league started this year jose Mourinho predicted that that it will be tough for the top four teams this year because of the quality of players coming into the Premiership through middle table teams.
He went on to say that the top teams would lose many many games, and you know nothing epitomise is that more than West Ham football club and the way they have started this season.
9 points picked at the Emirates, Anfield and Etihad is by no means a fantastic achievement
Billic seems to have worked out a system that’s successful, a mechanism at play that is paying dividends; Pace, skills and purpose, grounded with solid defending and effective wing back play.
Kudos to him for not just showing up at these venues and parking the bus.
The challenge with his system is whether it’ll work the same way consistently when they are not the underdogs and have to take the play to their opponents as the favourites.
Whatever happens, i can already see West Ham, Palace, maybe Southampton crashing the party and messing up the cake.
Kudos to Bilic and West Ham.
CITY STRUGGLE WITHOUT SILVA’S KOMPANY
Just when everybody made Man City the runaway leaders of the league they crumble to a superb West Ham team playing fantastic football at the moment.
My concern for City is that the team still relies too much on individual performances all over the park and they’re still not a unit that can miss out one or two key players and still perform with the others.
There is Kompany at the back, Yaya and Silva in the middle and Aguero upfront. Each time two of these four go missing, City struggle to win games
With this expensive assembly of stars (they still have the best squad in the league in terms of quality) they struggled to be creative in the middle of the park, with DeBruyne coming out tips for me with his movements. He constantly moved the central defenders into areas they didn’t want to go and he made unselfish runs into the spaces created by Navas, Sterling and Aguero.
To be fair, West Ham also made things difficult for them in the middle with Payet, Lazzini and Nobles running the show.
Pellegrini has to find a path through difficult and ugly games for City fast, otherwise they would drop Points where they shouldn’t and also exit the Champions League prematurely.
They’ve lost 2 ugly games back to back in 3 days,
So can Pellegrini find a way past those funny games?
LIVERPOOL CANT FIND A WAY THROUGH THIS MAZE
If you are a Liverpool supporter, two years ago you would have been forgiven if you said your team was good enough to win the League.
That was a team on the rise in Europe with Suarez, Sturridge, Sterling, Gerrard, Carragher, Milner and even Glen Johnson.
But fast forward two years on and that Liverpool team is hardly recognisable
The problem is how the management have spent in the transfer market, inability to attract the top players to Anfield, contract management by the board (always waiting last minute to tie up player contracts) and most importantly, dare I say, the manager? Or is it manager/player relationship?
I always say that if top players are asking to leave year in, year out, it just means they’re sacking the manager and saying “we want to go where the pastures are green” “we want to follow a new manager after trying this one out”
Suarez left controversially, Sterling left in similar style, Gerrard was retired against his will andJohnson was forced out, so does that say something about the guys dictating player contracts and personnel?
My fear for Liverpool is that the gap is increasing with every season and if care is not taken, Liverpool would slide back into the team it became until about two years ago: has beens. After all, those players have not been replaced and so from the quality of stars on array a few seasons ago, leading the charge in Europe, we now have a team that is almost not in contention for anything and is just playing average football
from the outside, and are really struggling to keep their noses out of the waters.
Another one all draw this weekend to premiership newcomers is a disappointing result and this season is already playing out a similar script to last season’s disappointing one.
If nothing changes, would we see another Suarez/Sterling saga with Coutinho?
MARTIAL PAYING OFF HIS LOAN WEEKLY
Another fantastic display by young teenager Martial. He is definitely writing himself into the annals of Manchester United chronicles with the way he has started his career at Old Trafford, if he keeps improving himself daily, if he stays fit, and if he stays out of the headlines for the wrong reasons.
As for the transfer fee, his goals, composure, strength and play have already put paid to that, what he is doing is now paying back the loan with goals until the invoice is fully paid off.
Good thing also that Man Utd sorted out the DeGea saga, I’m even tempted to think he didn’t go to Real because of Rafa Benitez (but that’s for another day)
LVG a has found a way to keep racking in three points from each game.
Just as United play and pass, and play and pass until they tire out the opposition, so LVG is bent on picking the points until they wear out the opposition and arrive at the podium come season’s end.
For United at the moment it’s business as usual no matter what it takes
It’s early days but LVG a seems to be working out his plan very well for now