Diego Costa was up for a fight as soon as he walked in through the doors at Chelsea.
It is pre-season ahead of the 2014/15 Premier League campaign and while the rest of the Blues squad are sitting down for a meal, their new striker – signed from Atletico Madrid – is standing in the middle of the room with boxing gloves, taking on kit man Billy McCollough in a light-hearted sparring session.
McCollough falls to the ground under pressure from the Spanish-Brazilian striker, with no-one 100 per cent sure whether Costa is going along with the joke or actually looking to win the fight.
“I knew we were going to win the league after that,” said then-Chelsea captain John Terry years later. How right the defender would be.
In three years at Stamford Bridge, and at a club where strikers have historically struggled to make their mark, Costa managed to pick up two Premier League winners’ medals and score 59 goals in 120 games, but also pick up a clear reputation: loved by Chelsea, hated by the rest.