Diego Costa was the talk of England thanks to his stunning first half of the season, where he scored 14 times in the league before New Year’s Day.
Since the turn of the year, however, the goals have dried up but, ahead of today’s match at Bournemouth, manager Antonio Conte said: “I’m not concerned about Diego. It can happen.
“For me, the most important thing is he is showing me great commitment and behaviour during the games and is doing what I want.
“He was also unlucky in a lot of circumstances. But a player like Diego Costa can score in every game and I’m sure he can do this. He has experience, character, personality. That’s very important for us and the team. Also, he has won in the past.
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Antonio Conte has no qualms about Diego Costa’s recent slump
“He’s an important player if he is scoring or if he isn’t. He must continue with his commitment and then I’m sure he’ll score.
“Do I need to speak to him? No, no, no. I speak with all my players and, if I’m not happy with someone’s commitment or behaviour, then I would speak to him. But if he’s not scoring? He’s playing good football and doing what I want.”
Chelsea, who should be able to call on Victor Moses again after injury, are on a high after Wednesday’s 2-1 victory over Manchester City, a match not without incident with friction between the two benches.
That boiled over in the tunnel after the game with Chelsea fitness coach Paolo Bertelli and Manchester City masseur Mark Sertori clashing verbally before City boss Pep Guardiola intervened.
Conte though insists the tension did not surprise him.
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Costa has scored just three Premier League goals in 2017
“I stayed in the changing-room. I didn’t see what happened,” he said.
“I saw, during the game, that there was one moment a bit of confrontation but then it finished.
“It’s normal because, when you are in this moment of the season and there are two great teams playing for the title, there are nerves.
“A bit of nerves from both sides. The most important thing is to show always great respect, the winners and the losers.”
Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe has given his players a talking to, however, as he challenged them to produce another maximum-level performance against Premier League leaders Chelsea.
The Cherries are on a five-match unbeaten run which has seen them pick up points at Old Trafford and then Liverpool, where Josh King’s late strike secured a 2-2 draw on Wednesday.
But Howe knows all that hard work can be quickly undone as his squad gear up for games against the league’s top two sides, with a trip to White Hart Lane to follow next Saturday.
“We are feeling good and confident at the moment,” said Howe. “Our home form has been very good, we have won our last two here and performed well away in the last two as well, against Southampton and Liverpool, which were really big points for us.
“We have to maximise ourselves in every game, be difficult to break down, and we have been able to do that recently, so the next two matches are going to be similar types.”
After watching the manner in which his team battle back to earn a point at Anfield, Howe feels Bournemouth have again shown they have what it takes to hold their own in the top flight as they look to edge closer to safety.
“It reinforces our belief we can get points against anybody, we have always believed that this season,” he said. “We do need the team to perform, every unit, at a very high level and we had that against Liverpool.
“We showed the character and belief you need, because even when you are chasing games you have to believe you can score a goal at any time to get something from it, that is a really important quality to have.
Howe added: “You have to get over the line, to finish the job off and that would be the view from our perspective, we still need points ourselves.
“At the start of the season it was all about getting over 42 points, which was our total from last year and that is still our aim.”
