Diego Costa and Antonio Conte: The devil and the detail

Chelsea 1 West Brom 0: Diego Costa’s 12th goal of the season took Chelsea to their ninth successive league victory and back to the top of the Premier League – three points clear of Arsenal – but just imagine where they would be if they could do first halves.

Antonio Conte’s men were resisted defiantly by West Bromwich Albion for 75 minutes, having started slowly yet again, before a fatal a mistake by Baggies’ defender Gareth McAuley gave Costa a sniff of goal. The Chelsea striker is in the sort of form that does not allow for such errors. He took advantage of McAuley’s hesitation, out-muscled the big defender and arrowed a shot high into the far corner of Ben Foster’s goal to clinch three points for the Blues.

It was harsh on West Brom, who had smothered Costa and Co up to that point, although it has to be said that yet again Chelsea were slow out of the blocks, taking 40 minutes before registering their first effort on target, a free kick from David Luiz that was saved easily by Foster.