Chelsea have had a dream of a season so far for a number of reasons. Everything has come together perfectly; Conte’s tactics, Kante’s energy and Hazard’s magic have been key components. But you could make a case for Diego Costa’s return to form being most important of all. The Spaniard has netted 17 goals in 25 Premier League games to fire his side to the top of the table.
Costa’s all action displays have really endeared him to the Chelsea faithful. Blues fans even chanted his name relentlessly when Conte dropped him from the squad earlier this season, after he had reportedly asked to leave for the riches of the Chinese Super League. Costa is clearly a hero for many Chelsea fans, who will be praying he sticks with them this summer.
Costa still has some way to go to make it form hero to legend status at Chelsea, Didier Drogba however, is clearly the later. The Ivorian was the figurehead of the new Chelsea under Roman Abramovic, a new era, a completely different side (other than Lampard and Terry), with completely different targets.
Drogba was one of the leaders of the dressing room; he claimed 10 trophies during his first spell at the club, before adding another two during his second spell in the 14-15 season. The haul includes 4 league titles, 3 league cups, 4 FA Cups and 1 Champions League. Further to this, he was a man for the big occasion, seemingly always finding the net in finals, most famously against Bayern in Munich with a bullet-header to take the match to extra-time.
Trophy-wise Costa has made a good start but still has some way to go to match Drogba, the Spaniard has 1 league title and a league cup, but looks well placed to add at least 1 more trophy this season. If Costa is ever to make that leap to become a Chelsea legend, he’s going to need to get close to the 12 trophies Drogba has.
The most important job for the striker is finding the net, so a goals comparison would be useful here. Drogba has 104 goals in 254 league games for Chelsea, a strike rate of 0.41 goals per game. Costa has netted 49 in 79 league games, a strike rate of 0.62 goals per game. Clearly Costa has the edge here, the Spaniard has really hit the ground running since he joined the Blues, which is why he has become so popular with the fans in such a short amount of time. If you also factor in Chelsea’s awful season last year where most of the players seemed to just down tools then the strike rate looks even more impressive.
In his prime, Drogba was a strong, brutal player, who gave defenders a real going over. He wasn’t blessed with lightening pace, but was quick enough for this not to be limiting. Both these points can be said in the present day about Costa. In each of their era’s they were/are one of the best lone strikers in world football. Costa has the better strike rate, but will need to add more trophies and important goals to become a Chelsea legend like Drogba.