Chelsea boss Antonio Conte insists Diego Costa is a 'good guy' despite his disciplinary record

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte says Diego Costa regularly picks up yellow cards because of his "passionate" approach to football.

Costa has started this season in typically fiery form - having already picked up two bookings in just three Premier League appearances.

However, Conte insists the striker is a "good guy" and urged him to channel his passion in a positive way when Chelsea travel to Swansea in the league on Sunday.

"Diego is a passionate man. For this reason, he sometimes risks a yellow card," Conte said.

"But I want him to improve in this aspect. I want to have Diego Costa in all the games. Diego knows the situation.

"I want him to play with the right passion and the right aggression. He must transfer his emotions on to the pitch in the right way. Always.

"I think that Diego is a good guy. He's a player who is very important for the team. I tell him: 'Transfer your passion and enthusiasm in the right way, and it's good for me'.

"I like it when a player shows his passion for this sport. It's fantastic. We do this work but, for us, it's not work it's a passion.

"It's important to transfer this to our fans and all the people who watch the game. For us, this is not work."

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Costa enters this weekend's game in a rich vein of goalscoring form, having found the net twice during Spain's 8-0 World Cup qualifying win over Liechtenstein on Monday.

It was the perfect response from the Brazil-born forward after missing out on Vicente del Bosque's squad for Euro 2016.

The 27-year-old expressed his frustration at his omission earlier this week but Conte urged the striker to concentrate on his own performances, rather than his treatment earlier this summer.

"Diego must think about playing football on the pitch and about playing with Chelsea, to play with the national team in Spain," Conte said.

"It's important to be focused on the pitch and to leave the other situations. Those other situations are not interesting for him, for me, for Chelsea, for the fans or for the national team.

"I watched his game and he played a good game against Belgium and against Liechtenstein.

"It's normal, though, that if you are a forward and you score, you've had a fantastic performance.

"If you play well but don't score, people say the performance is not good. But Diego is a player who, in every game, puts all of himself into the game. I like this a lot."