A bit of a scoring drought around the turn of the year combined with the China rumors made it easy to forget Diego Costa’s impact earlier this season, but he seems to have rediscovered his scoring touch and on Monday night, notched his 20th league goal of the campaign. It’s the second time in his three years at Chelsea that he’s reached that milestone, which puts him into a rather exclusive club alongside Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink and Didier Drogba.
20 - Costa's goal means he's the 3rd player to score 20+ goals in a PL season for @ChelseaFC on 2 occasions (Hasselbaink & Drogba). Potent. pic.twitter.com/qC7ZNxU4lq
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) May 8, 2017
You might be surprised to learn that neither Drogba nor JFH reached 20+ goals on more than two occasions, though Drogba did get 29 in Ancelotti’s first season in charge. If Diego Costa does stay this summer, he surely has a pretty good chance of getting to this marker for a third time.
Of course, given all the rumors, it’s unlikely that Costa sees another season in Chelsea colors. And while he looked set to leave last season, too (and in fact had to tuck tail and work his way into Conte’s favor after the Atléti move fell through), there’s a feeling of finality an inevitability around this summer’s departure.
Then again, here’s Costa after the game to cast a bit of doubt on that.
“I am the owner of my future and it does not mean that I am going to China.”
-Diego Costa; source: DIRECTVSports via Telegraph
Could Costa stay after all? What would that mean for a potential Lukaku (or Morata) signing?
Hmmm...