Photo: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

If you saw my last post on Diego Costa, then you should recall that I categorically stated that it was important he was called back into the starting eleven in time to face Hull City. The Spain international missed the game against reigning champions, Leicester due to issues that still aren’t clear to me, but I said it was important we get past all of it, and get our star man back into action. As if Conte read that post, he restored Costa to the starting eleven, and the Spain international didn’t waste the opportunity to remind us all why he’s important to our team.

We were able to beat Leicester without Costa, but Hull are a different and more organised team under their new manager Marco Silva, and I sensed they would give us trouble. They were difficult to break down, and they could have taken the lead that evening. At a point, it started to look like we’d have to settle for a point, but Costa intervened, and swung the game in our favour immediately. After Costa scored, Hull became less organised than they were, and we were able to score another.

I saw that game, and I couldn’t stop thinking about what could have happened if we didn’t have Costa in that game. The man may have issues, but you can’t ever ignore his usefulness to us. He gets the goals when needed, even in the most difficult situations. I am happy he’s back for us, and scoring again, and I hope he carries the same form into the game against Liverpool.