Diego Costa feeds off the haters, and their criticism only makes him stronger – according to team mate Branislav Ivanovic.
Costa, banned for three games after being caught on camera stepping on two Liverpool players in midweek, missed out of Chelsea's hard fought 1-1 draw with title rivals Manchester City on Saturday.
He could be seen sat behind the Chelsea bench, grinning broadly – despite several days of headlines in which he was lambasted as 'dirty' and a 'headcase'.
Ivanovic said the Premier League's leading goalscorer would only be made stronger by the attention, and that he was in his element receiving it.
“Yeah, I think that Diego likes attention and likes people to speak about him,” said the Serb.
“This makes him a better player. This is his way to play and for me there’s nothing wrong with that.
“For me really the ban is… I cannot speak about that but for me this has happened a lot of time during one game. Sometimes the camera catches that, sometimes not.
“For us Diego is very important but I think (Loic) Remy played fantastic and he scored the goal and this is a positive things and these are the things we have to be proud of.”
