Diego Costa, much more than just a battering ram

It's an odd choice of headline for the Daily Mail, to call Diego Costa's Chelsea's "battering ram," and then spend the next several paragraphs of their featurette showing us how he's so much more than just a brute force dummy at the top.  It's a bit of a shame, too, for the rest of the article is quite excellent and you owe it to yourself to go and read it.  And then come back here and talk about it.

Here are my two favorite bits:

When Diego Costa clattered into a post as he scored against Getafe last season there was a collective holding of breath among Atletico Madrid and Spain fans at the sight of him being taken off on a stretcher.

While they worried, he had his phone out in the dressing room filming medical staff filling the bone-deep wound in his right knee with antiseptic and stapling it back together again. He sent the video to friends to reassure them his season was far from over.

No, Diego, a video of your bloody, gashed leg getting stitched together is not a sign of everything being fine to most people!  I'm getting a bit queasy just thinking about it.

It was there [in the 'alcohol fueled' informal street games] that Diego developed the ‘elbows permanently out' style that would get him in so much trouble in Spain. ‘If anyone touched me I would react,' he said. Having never attended one of Brazil's many club-affiliated football schools as a youngster, the street fighter approach had never been tamed.

[...]

‘There are some things you should not do in a game,' he said. ‘But there are other things that are normal when you consider how much is at stake in a big match.'

Just don't bite anyone, please.

Costa's off to a pretty good start in his Chelsea career, albeit all his production -- two goals and three assists -- have the massive preseason caveat attached to them.  Hopefully the regular season will bring much the same.