Chelsea

Thibaut Courtois: 'Chelsea can easily replace Diego Costa'

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 16 January 2017

Courtois: 'Chelsea can easily replace Costa'

Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois is confident that his side already have enough quality in their ranks to adapt to life without Diego Costa should he leave this month.

Thibaut Courtois has insisted that Chelsea "have enough quality to replace Diego Costa" should he leave the club to join Chinese Super League side Tianjin Quanjian.

The Spain international, currently joint-top scorer in the Premier League along with Alexis Sanchez and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, is said to be unsettled at Stamford Bridge and hoping to push through a move to the Far East.

After seeing his side score three times to brush aside champions Leicester City in Costa's absence on Saturday evening, Courtois is adamant that Chelsea can live without their leading marksman if he gets his wish and moves on later this month.

"Of course we have enough quality to replace Diego," he told reporters. "Diego is important for us but if he's not there for one game we know we can handle it as well.

"Was this win a message to our rivals? Yes, just to see Chelsea won 3-0 and that loss at Spurs didn't affect us and we can play without Diego if need be. I think everybody hoped for us to drop points and we didn't so that was very good."

Costa, who joined Chelsea from Atletico Madrid in a deal worth £32m in 2014, has scored 14 goals in 19 top-flight appearances this season.