Diego Costa keeps cool to carry Chelsea fight

Chelsea 2 Aston Villa 0: The saint or sinner debate surrounding Diego Costa haunts Jose Mourinho, even when the Chelsea forward appears to be the innocent party, but a much-needed victory over Aston Villa underlined one fact in this most uncomfortable of title defences for the legendary manager.

Mourinho’s fate is inexorably linked with that of his Brazilian-born superstar.

Costa, returning from a three-game suspension, scored one, shot for Alan Hutton to score an own goal and put in an admirable shift that included his characteristic, game-long playground feuding with opposition defenders.