7 Insane Diego Costa Stats That Nobody Talks About
Diego Costa may have ended his scoring run after failing to find the net for Chelsea against Manchester City, but he is still statistically the best striker in the Premier League, per WhoScored.com.
Coming off the back of a prolific season with Atletico Madrid and having suffered a hamstring injury that is still troubling him, concerns that Costa would take a while to settle at Stamford Bridge have been alleviated so far.
There has been a lot of praise for the striker’s prowess in front of goal with pundits declaring him to be a perfect fit for the Premier League.
However, everybody knows that statistics are even more important than goals in modern football.
For example, you might know that Costa scored 36 goals for Atletico Madrid in the 2013-14 season, but do you know how many matches he has missed through suspension in his career? Or how many fouls he has suffered?
Click through for seven of the craziest Costa stats that will amaze and astound your mates down the pub.
Statistics taken from WhoScored.com and transfermarkt.co.uk
Defensive Duties
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Costa is a traditional striker, with a career average of 0.7 tackles per game, according to WhoScored.
However, he is already a quarter of the way toward his league total from last season and has been putting in excellent performances across the pitch so far, as pointed out by Thore Haugstad at FourFourTwo.
Helping Hand
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Unlike Eden Hazard—Chelsea’s top scorer from last season—Costa prefers to finish chances rather than create them.
He has made 38 assists over the course of his career so far, with his most creative season coming when he registered 12 assists in La Liga in 2012-13.
Foul Play
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One of Costa’s greatest strengths is his ability to outmuscle defenders, often drawing free-kicks in crucial areas for his team-mates to convert.
In fact, Costa has been fouled 361 times in just 278 career appearances, adding an extra weapon to his arsenal of attacking threats.
Shooting Practice
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WhoScored’s records go back as far as the 2009-10 season and state that the striker has had 295 shots between then and the most recent game of the 2014-15 season.
Having scored 71 goals over this period, Costa’s shot-to-goal ratio is a healthy four to one.
Considering he has averaged 3.2 shots per game so far this season, it is no wonder that he has topped the scoring charts.
Costa Lot?
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Atletico Madrid paid £1.32 million to bring Costa in from Braga in 2007, per transfermarkt.com.
He went on to score 64 goals for them, giving him a cost-per-goal ratio of £20,625.
Considering the £33.4 million fee that Chelsea dished out, he would have to score 1,621 goals to get to the same ratio for the Blues.
Seeing Red
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Costa has a reputation for being a bit of a hothead, with WhoScored citing his disciplinary issues as a significant weakness in his game.
However, he has only missed 20 games through suspension in his career, per transfermarkt. That is, despite picking up a whopping 91 yellow cards and a further eight reds.
Reliability
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Injuries have caused Costa to spend several long spells on the sidelines.
Unlike some strikers, this does not seem to have affected his overall form, as his career average of a goal every 183 minutes testifies.
A goal return of one every other game is a perfectly respectable average for a 25-year-old, and it makes him exactly as good as Fernando Torres.
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