After a decent first season for Jose Mourinho on his return to Chelsea, he made sure his side were ready to be big dogs again in his second campaign back in 2014.
The Blues made a heap of big-name additions to their first team squad, including Thibaut Courtois, Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa.
The addition of a top striker was something that was clearly required to take Chelsea up a level, after they struggled with the likes of Fernando Torres and Demba Ba the season before.
The Spain international already had top defenders worrying. Cesar Azpilicueta praised Costa as one of his toughest opponents ever in a recent interview.
Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images
Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images
Jamie Carragher’s Diego Costa prediction before his Chelsea debut
The goal for the Blues was to win the Premier League for the first time since 2010, and the addition helped take them to that goal in his first season at the club.
Ahead of his debut for his new side, Jamie Carragher was analysing Costa for Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football and the impact he could potentially have, and he predicted before a ball was kicked that he could take his new side to the title.
He said: “I think with the addition of Costa, that powerful striker, we go back to the days of Drogba playing up here, that powerful battering ram that Lampard used to feed off.
“We’d expect Fabregas, maybe Ramires to feed off him, Hazard, Schurrle. I think he got 36 goals last season, if he does that this season they’ll win the league. That’s what they lacked last season, we know that.
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“I think a few people looked at him in the World Cup. He’s not the easiest on the eye sometimes, he looks a bit big and awkward, but he gets goals.
“He’s coming from a top league, to score that amount of goals in a league as good as that, if he can get that number of goals in this Chelsea team, he can take them to the title.”
The striker would score Chelsea’s first goal of the season that night, in a game that is best known for Fabregas’ glorious assist to Andre Schurrle.
Costa would hit 20 goals in just 26 Premier League games that season, the same tally he hit in 2016/17 when the Blues won the league again under Antonio Conte.
Photo by Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images
Photo by Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images
Chelsea’s search for the next Diego Costa
Chelsea fans idolised Costa when he was at the club, and have been full of admiration since his sudden departure from Stamford Bridge.
Given his talents, it was always going to be difficult to replace the Spain international, and is perhaps why a number of linked strikers recently share similar traits to him.
Samu Aghehowa has been compared to Costa, and strongly linked with a move last summer, with that remaining on the table for a future transfer window.