Diego Costa

Manuel Pellegrini hopes Chelsea striker Diego Costa becomes a changed man following stamp ban:
The Man City boss and his side will benefit from the striker's absence tomorrow, but says: “He does not need to do that kind of thing because he is a top player"
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/manuel-pellegrini-hopes-chelsea-striker-5072111

"Maybe he is not an easy character, but I hope with this punishment that it will be a good thing for him for him to change a little bit in the future."

Doubt it

https://twitter.com/ArsenalMoh8/status/564532990832033792

Shed wrote:https://twitter.com/ArsenalMoh8/status/564532990832033792

I hate that peasant. Seems obsessed with Chelsea in all his Arsenalfantv videos

Never seen him

Shed wrote:Never seen him

Great channel. You should definetly check it out after an Arsenal loss

sample

Oh I've seen the channel (who hasn't ), just not that particular guy.

It's a great channel, tbh

Meh, he's been bang average since November honestly

It was a good goal

Great goal!

https://twitter.com/diegocosta

He just got facebook, too

Hamstring injury says Mourinho.

I hope it's not too serious, but we do have a small break now, anyway.

Remy will star regardless

Diego has been banned for three games, Walsall, Newcastle and Soton.

Not a big loss for the first as I doubt he was going to play anyway, but I would have liked him to be around for the other two.

I think we're fast approaching the point we have to admit to ourselves that Costa just is not a top-class striker. He's 27 year old yet had just 1½ great goalscoring seasons in his entire career before joining us. Take away his childish, contemptible, ultimately self-defeating antics and he's been nothing more than average since his fluke goal surge when he first joined. Combine that with the fact that our two back-ups to him couldn't hit a cow's ass with a banjo and it's no surprise we can't score from open play to save our lives.

Lukaku > Costa

If none of the strikers are performing could it not be an issue with tactics and/or supporting players failing to supply the goal-scorers with adequate chances? It's hugely rare for a forward to maintain a regular vein of scoring form if the team behind him is struggling, as he simply doesn't get real opportunities. Costa has never been one to create his own chances on anything approaching a regular basis, so with both Mourinho and the likes of Hazard, Cesc, Oscar, et al out of sorts perhaps his own poor form is as much a symptom as it is an ailment itself.

Of course, this is mostly speculation on my part, as I haven't paid close enough attention on a regular basis to have any real insight into the matter directly.