Diego Costa sends Chelsea to top of Premier League

Diego Costa’s lone strike was enough to settle affairs at the Riverside Stadium as promoted Boro made life hard for the visitors and the result remained in doubt until the death.

“Confidence and spirit are up and we are playing well”, Chelsea defender Gary Cahill told Sky Sports. “It’s important to continue in this way because we need his goals, Eden’s goals, Willian’s goals, Pedro’s goals”.

“He’s a fantastic striker and he’s showing this”.

The two draws, however, were more impressive as they came against Manchester City and Arsenal.

Manchester City kept the pressure on with a 2-1 win at Crystal Palace, with Yaya Toure returning to the side with a brace, while Arsenal lost a bit of ground after leaving it late to draw 1-1 at Manchester United.

The Chelsea players have also recorded the second highest pass completion and rate of successful tackles, while creating over 80 chances to score and drawing the same number of fouls.

It’s important that you kill the game if you have the possibility.

“At a corner or cross anything can happen in the Premier League”.

“Now we have five days to prepare for a tough game against a team like Tottenham”.

“I am particularly happy for the players that we sit atop of the table at the moment”.

“We won 1-0 against a strong team with good organisation”.

A good chance soon fell Middlesbrough’s way as they played the ball around nicely, but Gaston Ramirez failed to even hit the target with his effort from the edge of the area.

The west London side finished in tenth place in the Premier League table last season under Jose Mourinho and Guus Hiddink. Now, it’s not easy.

Chelsea were not at their free-flowing best at the Riverside Stadium, largely because of a determined performance by the home side.

“Diego is always important, not only for today”, Conte said of a player who had scored only twice at this point last season, when the then-champions found themselves three points above the relegation zone.

No matches in Europe, an extremely talented manager, a mean defence and an attack capable of unlocking any team – Chelsea are looking more and more like the favourites for the title with every passing game in the Premier League.