Antonio Conte hails Chelsea’s Diego Costa as the ‘best striker in the world’

           

Antonio Conte has hailed Chelsea’s Diego Costa as the ‘best striker in the world’.

Spaniard Costa returned to form last week with an impressive brace in the 4-2 win over Southampton at Stamford Bridge.

Before that, Costa had failed to score in seven games for the Blues amid increasing uncertainty over his future.

The 28-year-old was strongly linked with a move to the Chinese Super League during January and Costa is being tipped to leave Chelsea this summer.

The Premier League leaders face Everton on Sunday and Conte hopes Costa wins the battle of the strikers at Goodison Park with Romelu Lukaku set to start for the hosts.

‘I hope it will be Diego who decides it because that means we win the game,’ Conte said. We are talking about two great strikers. But you know that Diego, for me, is the best striker in the world.

‘I hope he will be decisive in this game and from now on until the end of the season.

‘He has the character you need at this stage of the season, for sure. It’s very important to have players with good personality, with good strong characters, because you must be ready to face a different situation.’

Former Italy boss Conte added: ‘He’s a warrior – but I think in the team we have a lot of warriors. I work every day to bring them to be warriors.

‘It’s great to have talent. But I like a lot when you are a warrior during the game and – above all – if players with talent show they work hard during the game.’

With Costa being targeted by mega-rich clubs from China, Chelsea are said to be lining up a move for Everton’s Lukaku.

The Belgium international is expected to be on the move this summer but Conte refused to be drawn on his interest in the player.

‘You know that I don’t like to speak about the other players of the other teams, above all in this part of the season,’ he said.