Diego Costa!!! His excellent start - does it signal success on a looming failure

When Diego Costa took Cesc Fabregas’s inch-perfect pass in his stride and lifted the ball effortlessly past Wojciech Szczesny to seal Sunday’s clash with Arsenal it was the Spanish international’s ninth goal in his first seven Premier League appearances for Chelsea.

His extraordinary goalscoring record is the best of any foreign player in their first seven Premier League appearances - only Micky Quinn, with 10 in his first seven matches for Coventry in 1992/3, can better it.

The £32m signing’s seamless transition to the Premier League has drawn collective sigh of relief from the Chelsea faithful, understandably wary of paying big money for an ex-Atletico Madrid striker - Fernando Torres, for the record, took 49 games to score his first nine league goals for Chelsea.

But how much can really be read into such a fast start?

We look at how other imported strikers have fared after bursting onto the Premier League scene…

THE SUCCESS STORY: If Sergio Aguero’s example is anything to go by, Chelsea fans have the right to be very excited indeed. It was the Argentinian’s record of eight in his first seven that Costa has beaten, and, when fit, Aguero has barely paused for breath during his four seasons at Manchester City. If Costa can match Aguero’s haul of 56 goals in 77 starts and two league championship medals, José Mourinho will have completed a very good piece of business indeed.

More: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/does-diego-costas-extraordinary-start-at-chelsea-guarantee-he-will-be-a-success-9778315.html

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