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West Ham manager Sam Allardyce has warned his defenders against winding up Diego Costa on Wednesday, insisting the Chelsea striker only plays better when he is angry.
Costa has scored 17 goals during an impressive debut campaign at Stamford Bridge but the 26-year-old has also courted controversy with his bullish character and combative style of play.
The Spain forward was handed a three-match ban in January for stamping on Liverpool's Emre Can, and with eight yellow cards is only two cautions away from another suspension.
"We're not to get involved with him, our central defenders are not to get involved with how he might upset them," Allardyce said.
"People say he's an old-fashioned centre forward because he seems to get motivated by the physical and niggly aspect of it so we're not to get involved in that.
"I don't think it winds him up -- it winds him up to make him better which is a silly thing to do.
"He winds defenders up too, he'll do a bit of digging and niggling himself which is all part of how good he is.
"He's one of many we need to shackle down and if we are to keep him quiet we need to limit the service that is given to him."
Costa is goalless in five matches but it was his strike that deflected in off Kyle Walker as Chelsea beat Tottenham 2-0 in the Capital One Cup final at Wembley on Sunday.
"You can tag him for quite a while in some cases and then all of a sudden he pops up and however he seems to score it seems to go in the back of the net," Allardyce said. "That might be good fortune or his expertise as a finisher -- he can head them in, scuff them in, mis-kick them in, hit them in sweet, hit them in through the legs, deflect them in off the defender -- it shows his great ability to score goals. "He has scored all types of goals throughout the season, which is why he looks like one of the few who can go better than the 20-mark in one season."
West Ham's 3-1 defeat at home to Crystal Palace on Saturday extended a disappointing run of form that has yielded just one win in 10 league games.
Champions League qualification seemed a realistic prospect when the Hammers sat fourth in December but Allardyce's side now find themselves ninth in the table and struggling to keep pace with the top six.
"It's not been anywhere near as good as it should have been," Allardyce said.
"The fact we've been in the lead so many times and not won the game has been the huge disappointment.
"It wasn't just we weren't able to beat Man United and Tottenham, we were also up against Swansea, West Brom -- if we had converted even three of those into victories we'd still be talking about the Europa League places.
"With 11 games still to go it still has to be our goal that we will get on a winning streak and instead of drawing games we'll win them.
"If we can do that until the end of the season we might get around there again."
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