'Complete' Costa racking up the goals

'Complete' Costa racking up the goals

LIVERPOOL - Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho hailed Diego Costa as the complete striker after his side's 6-3 Premier League win over Everton on Saturday, but was far less enthused with his men's defensive performance.

Brazil-born Costa scored twice in a thrilling match at Goodison Park to take his tally to four goals in three games, and maintained Chelsea's winning start to the season.

Mourinho bought Costa for £32 million (S$66 million) from Atletico Madrid during the close season to add more firepower to a Chelsea side that managed 71 goals last season.

That figure was way behind that of champions Manchester City (102) and runners-up Liverpool (101) in the last campaign, but Mourinho expects more with a lethal finisher in his side.

"It was the complete performance of a striker," Mourinho said. "The perfect performance in every aspect.

"In the first half, he was tackling, he recovered balls, he held the ball, and his movement was quality. Everything was really good.

"Diego had three chances and he scored two goals. He is a good finisher and he gives us a lot. In the end, we are killers in attack."

Chelsea took the lead with two goals in the first three minutes from Costa and Branislav Ivanovic, before Kevin Mirallas pulled one back for the Toffees on the stroke of half-time.

Six second-half goals saw the contest really come alive as a Seamus Coleman own goal, Steven Naismith, Nemanja Matic, Samuel Eto'o and Ramires all found the net, before Costa added his second in the final minute of normal time.

Mourinho criticised his side's defensive frailties after they allowed Everton to reduce the deficit on three occasions, before they found the extra bit of quality required.

He added: "In training during the week, we worked on defensive corners and free kicks, so imagine how happy I am with the result of our work.

"I may as well have stayed at home with my wife and kids. It's possible to have lots of goals, but we made defensive mistakes."

Everton manager Roberto Martinez was unhappy with his team's defensive display, although he felt it was a mindset issue rather than the players themselves who were to blame.

"It's not the technicality, it's the feeling," added Martinez. "I wouldn't be too worried about it because of the opposition. But it highlights the goals we conceded in the previous two games.

"The balance is right, I thought our attacking play was phenomenal. If you look at the chances we had, I think you would be surprised.

"But we need to be a bit more positive at what we are good at defensively. We have over a thousand appearances in that back four and the goalkeeper.

"It's not the personnel, we need to focus and get back to basics and start building games with a solid outlook which hasn't been there."

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