Clinical Diego Costa more able than Harry Kane

All the fuss had surrounded Tottenham’s goal machine and local boy Harry Kane coming into the Capital One Cup final but it was that man Diego Costa who once again stole the headlines for Chelsea as he fired them to their first major trophy of the season.

Tottenham supporters celebrate the fact that Kane has come through the club’s academy, but despite arriving from Spain, Costa has quickly become one of their own at Chelsea.

The 26-year-old arrived at Stamford Bridge last summer but is already idolised by the supporters at the west London club and was the difference once again as he took his tally to 18 goals this season. Love him or hate him, he has been one of the major factors in Chelsea’s dominance at the top of the Premier League and showed his quality once again as he was a constant menace to the Spurs defence and played a crucial role in the all important second goal.

Right from the first whistle, Costa seemed to rub the Tottenham players up the wrong way and had angry exchanges with Eric Dier and Nabil Bentaleb in the opening half hour.

The Chelsea fans were loving every minute of it and when Dier received a yellow card for a late challenge on the Spanish forward, you just knew that Costa would gain some revenge. Boy, did he not disappoint.

After John Terry had headed Chelsea ahead on the stroke of half time it was inevitable that Costa would want to get in on the act. After picking up a ball from Cesc Fabregas, he used all his physical power to break free into the box and saw his powerful shot take a wicked deflection off Kyle Walker and the ball flew past Hugo Lloris.

Many Chelsea supporters feel they have already found the ideal replacement for Didier Drogba who is a legend at the Bridge and had a formidable record at Wembley in finals.

This could just be the start for Costa to have a similar record at the home of English football. You wonder how much of an appetite this will give the prolific forward and the rest of his teammates to win more silverware.

In stark contrast, this was a day Kane will want to forget quickly in what has been a fairytale season for the young forward. Having been shipped out on loan to several clubs in the lower leagues, the 21-year-old has clearly showed that he is ready to play at the highest level and, with 24 goals, he has been one of the deadliest strikers in the top flight this season.

Sadly he failed to reproduce that form when it mattered most for the north London club in their first domestic final since 2009.

Kane was made to look second-best by Terry and his England colleague Gary Cahill and never looked like troubling the Chelsea goal. This will of course be an invaluable learning curve for the talented youngster and he will hope to have many more big days out at Wembley in the future.

But for now Mauricio Pochettino will have a big task in lifting the spirits of Kane, who looked dejected as he left the field.

This has been a miserable few days for the north London club after they crashed out of the Europa League on Thursday night and only have the league left to play for, where they still have slim hopes of securing a top four finish. Pochettino will certainly need Kane at his very best if they are to achieve that dream.