Costa established himself as one of the stars of the Premier League in just one season; the amount of controversy he attracted was equally supplemented with good performances on the pitch.
These days, it’s quite the opposite. Brazilian-born Costa has truly been enduring a “sophomore slump” so far in the 2015/2016 season.
It is near the end of November, and he’s accumulated just three goals in the league. Costa has attracted too much controversy for his troublemaking behavior without producing enough goals for his club.
While Costa has been heavily criticised for his poor form throughout Chelsea’s horrid title defence, club legend Didier Drogba has spoken up and offered encouragement to the misfiring striker according to Goal.
You can understand that this one [season] could be a bit more difficult. He knows how to score goals and will learn how to deal with players in this league, and everything will be okay.
It took me time to adapt to English football, the intensity, the contact, and the way the referees referee the game. Diego saw last year that this league is very strong and competitive. Not that the Spanish league is not competitive but this league is completely different and you can lose against the team that is 16th in the table.
Referring to Costa and manager Jose Mourinho’s bust-up at half-time in the 4-0 win away to Maccabi Tel-Aviv on Tuesday, Drogba said:
I think it is just the passion of the player and the difficulty of the moment. I also had some passionate moments in my career! That is what football does.
It was difficult for me to understand why I was being criticised at first but as soon as I did, I did everything to change. I was the one performing and I was the one who had to show that I was good. So I have to adapt to them. And if I adapt to them they are going to support me and be with me. So I did everything for the fans to be with me.
I was lucky to have players around me who helped me like Frank Lampard, Petr Cech, John Terry — they were always there to support me and give me advice. They helped me to change my relationship with the fans. I was focusing more on my game and physically I was feeling stronger.
