As Atletico Madrid and Chelsea did battle in the Champions League group stages on Wednesday night, the figure of Diego Costa was always going to loom large over proceedings at the newly built Wanda Metropolitano stadium.
The Brazilian-born Spain international got the move he wanted by switching from Chelsea to Atletico - a transfer that will go through in January and as The Guardian's Spanish football correspondent Sid Lowe told us pre-match, the move has some symbolism for manager Diego Simeone.
"You have this sense of Diego Costa as being the embodiment of Diego Simeone's attempt to recover what they used to have and you know, you look at the long line of strikers that he's signed to replace Costa and none of them have really succeeded," said Lowe.
"You look at the way there's been over the last few seasons, Atletico evolving in style and then effectively regressing to what they knew and deciding 'let's stick to the qualities we've always had', so there was this sense when Costa signed that this was almost grasping to the past."
But rather than that being wholly the case, Lowe explains that what we are actually seeing is the "transition into a new era" with younger players starting to take control of the side like Saul Niguez and Koke even if some of the style remains the same. And with a broader squad, more rotation is something Simeone has looked to add in comparison to his earlier seasons.
"One of the things [Simeone] said to the club was, 'If I'm to continue and we're going to have a future, you're going to have to allow me to restructure this, you have to allow me to build towards a different era' and I think that's what we're seeing now. We're seeing the second big Diego Simeone team," he said, adding that Simeone has missed the qualities that Costa brings in terms of being able to stretch the game with most other strikers signed since Costa's departure at the club unable to replace him adequately.
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
