Friday afternoon in Cobham’s crammed media suite and, not for the first time of late, Antonio Conte was beginning to tire of all things Diego Costa. The Chelsea manager had already made clear the striker has fully recovered from the lower back pain that had forced him out of training the previous week and, ultimately, rendered him unavailable while his team-mates pulverised the reigning champions, Leicester City, last Saturday.
Just as obvious was the Italian’s reluctance to divulge details of Costa’s squabble with a fitness coach, who had apparently doubted the extent of the forward’s injury. Or, indeed, to recap on the club’s underlying frustrations, festering for a few weeks, that Tianjin Quanjian’s desire to make the adopted Spaniard one of the highest paid players in the world had provoked the fall-out. China was not up for discussion.
Conte, instead, was in full reintegration mode, “sure about Diego’s commitment, sure about his behaviour, sure about his will to fight for this team to try and win the title”. The awkward decision playing on his mind was who will step down for the return of his leading scorer against Hull? Relaying that, he said, is not a conversation he is relishing.
The tone was one of outward reassurance with the disquiet generated by Costa’s untimely rocking of the boat, just as everything was going so smoothly, acknowledged only tacitly. It was when the manager addressed the solidarity he has harnessed within this squad that it was almost exposed. “For sure, having the right spirit, this unity in the team, is fundamental if you want to win something,” he said, the question having centred upon the scenes of joyous celebration between players and supporters at the King Power stadium after a win that left them seven points clear at the top.
“It’s important to create this unity between the players, the staff, the club. In every team I’ve been manager, I’ve always tried to build this spirit. I’m proud we have created this in only five or six months. We are a team and, in this moment, every single player is [realising] his talent.”
It was that harmony Costa’s tantrum had threatened. No one can doubt the combustible striker’s commitment when out on the pitch. Forget the goals for a moment: the desire to contribute has been there to see in his industry all season, whether he has been battering and bullying defenders into submission or working selflessly to retrieve possession for the team and shut down opponents at source. At times his on-field discipline risks sanction, but successive Chelsea managers have seen more value than risk in selecting him. Costa has been integral to so much this team has achieved up to now, a player in whom Conte had personally invested so much time and effort. The anger felt within the club, from staff to hierarchy, at the events in the build-up to the Leicester game – that a desire to leave for China would disrupt the side’s progress – reflected the self-inflicted nature of the potential damage. It had all felt so unnecessary.
There may not have been conventional clear the air talks with the manager but, via a persuasive word in his ear from his team-mates, Costa has been made aware of the need to knuckle down. He has done just that, a striker who is always desperate to be involved duly throwing himself into training with gusto now that the back pain has receded, and making obvious his desire to play his part. Conte, who has always made clear he will only consider those who have demonstrated proper focus in their preparations during the week, had been seeking that reaction at Cobham. The pragmatist in him will be relieved that some kind of calm has been restored until the summer at least.
Beyond Sunday’s visit of Hull come Premier League games against Liverpool and Arsenal, fixtures that were lost in the autumn to provoke the changes, in formation and personnel, that have propelled Chelsea to, and maintained them at, the summit in the months since.
Costa’s brute force will be needed in those matches and a game against Hull, rather than an FA Cup fourth-round tie against Brentford where involvement might have been considered a slight, is an opportunity to reintegrate without much fuss. Restore him early and the issue will be forgotten, preferably with the good news story of a goal or two to celebrate along the way. “He has only missed for one game,” offered Conte as a reminder.
It would not be the first time this term that a match against these opponents can settle some anxiety. It all really started at the KC Stadium in October. Where the half-time switch to 3-4-3 at Arsenal had come with the team already 3-0 down and defeated, it was at Hull where Conte truly unveiled his solution to inadequacy. It was there that he had started with César Azpilicueta as a third centre-half, and Victor Moses and Marcos Alonso as wing-backs, as a game-plan fine-tuned during the build-up, rather than a ploy improvised out of desperation to stop the bleeding. Had that tactic failed – Chelsea, in eighth, were three points better off than Hull that afternoon, and the visitors’ victory was not an assumption – then the cracks exposed by the previous two defeats might have gaped wider.
Conte was still in the process of convincing the senior players that he had the answers, the situation still volatile with memories of last season’s underachievement raw. A win, chiselled out with two goals in six minutes just after the hour-mark, started to dispel the doubt.
It has all been part of a process. “You create this spirit day by day, with work, with decisions, with my behaviour and my players’ behaviour,” said Conte. “You put a lot of time in to create this. When you start pre-season in a new club, it’s not easy. You have to bring your habits, your methods, your philosophy. Every decision I take, I always put the club first, never myself. And also you have to make decisions with the players: who starts the games, who has to go on the bench, who goes in the stands.”
The fall-guy on Sunday is likely to be Willian, which is harsh on a player who has scored three goals in the leaders’ past two home games and whose opener at Hull had kickstarted the revival. “But, please, if I make a decision to choose one player and not another, it’s not because I want to punish one of them,” said Conte. “It’s because, now, I have four players who are in really good form and it’s not easy to choose. But I hope to make the best decision.”
Most of those he has taken have paid off handsomely, and there is nothing to suggest his latest will backfire. Costa’s long-term future at this club looks doubtful, but he can still be the rampaging figurehead to plunder the title. Hull know what to expect. Whether they can stop the Brazil-born forward taking out his own frustrations on them, however, is a very different matter.