Start as you mean to go on, they say.
Well, Chelsea did just that against Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday.
A nine-goal thriller saw Jose Mourinho's side come out eventual 6-3 winners and the man they had to thank for it yet again was Diego Costa, who opened the scoring after just 35 seconds.
Three games into his Chelsea career and the Spaniard is firing, scoring twice against the Toffees to bring his tally for the season to four.
By contrast, it took Fernando Torres 39 games to reach the same figure in the Premier League for Chelsea, outlining the ruthless edge Costa has added to the Blues' attack.
Indeed, his display came at the ideal time for player and manager.
On the weekend Torres has departed Stamford Bridge for AC Milan, per BBC Sport, Costa came up against two former Chelsea strikers in Samuel Eto'o and Romelu Lukaku .
Both were signed by Everton this summer having been deemed surplus by Mourinho.
They had failed to convince in west London, so the duo were dealt with the perfect opportunity to prove a considerable point against their former employers.
The headlines belong to Costa, though. He overshadowed everything Lukaku did—was clinical in front of goal, a creative outlet and even provided defensive cover at times.
Eto'o scored when coming off the bench after the interval, although his contribution was little outside of that.
Lukaku was the figure who attracted most attention. Still learning his trade, the general consensus is the 21-year-old left Chelsea after refusing to play as back-up to Costa.
He believes his time is now, that he is ready to be the best.
For anyone wondering why the Belgian was never granted his wish by Mourinho, they got their answer at Goodison.
A fact that wasn't lost on the Chelsea manager, when outlining the influence of Costa.
"Diego had three chances and scored two goals [...] He's a good finisher," was Mourinho's response in his post-match interview on Sky Sports.
"He doesn't have just that final touch, he participates in everything, even defensively. [...] He's giving us what we expect from him."
What we didn't expect from Chelsea, however, was the goals to rain in at the other end of the pitch.
Branislav Ivanovic doubled Chelsea's lead just two minutes after Costa's opener and from there it was expected the game was over as a contest, that Chelsea would ruthlessly close it out in the way only they can.
Credit to Everton, who didn't allow them to, as Roberto Martinez's side reacted well and controlled large parts.
That said, it was uncharacteristic from the Blues and despite a well-earned victory, Mourinho will be concerned with how charitable Chelsea were at the back.
"We tried to play with initiative, so we are a different team [...] But I don't want to be different by conceding goals," Mourinho continued.
It became a crazy situation of you-score-we-score, Everton fighting back every time Chelsea seemed to kill the game off.
The big concern for Mourinho will be where his team's ability to control the game had gone. The midfield was bypassed with alarming ease at times and Steven Naismith remained elusive for much of the game, causing problems without ever being properly picked up.
That's a big problem and it will be if allowed to continue. Mourinho knows it, as does his captain John Terry, although he did make an observation worth noting in his own interview with Sky Sports.
"The way we kept responding was excellent and something we didn't have last year," Terry said.
Because of Costa, this Chelsea team has the look of one capable of outscoring opponents should the need arise.
When they traveled to Goodison Park at a similar stage last year, they controlled game and dominated Everton. The scoreline was 1-0 to the home side, however, simply because Chelsea couldn't score goals. Their ability to respond when going behind was redundant.
It wasn't a secret they struggled with that last season, yet as Terry observes, Chelsea now have the power and personnel to not only suffocate teams, but respond to the game around them in ways they couldn't previously.
They responded against Everton and in the process, responded in the perfect way to Manchester City's shock home defeat to Stoke City earlier in the afternoon.
Just three games in and they're cranking up the pressure.
This game was pure theatre, but Mourinho will demand more control in the future if Chelsea are to avoid the pitfalls City have already experienced.
Just a few days after the passing of Chelsea's Honorary Life President, Lord Richard Attenborough, Mourinho let his team have this one, though.
It was a fitting tribute to the great man.
Were he watching, Dickie would have rejoiced in the drama of it all.
Garry Hayes is Bleacher Report's lead Chelsea correspondent. Follow him on Twitter @garryhayes
//from Bleacher Report http://ift.tt/1puzVbn
via IFTTT August 30, 2014 at 01:11PM
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