CHELSEA'S DIEGO COSTA WINS BARCLAYS PLAYER OF THE MONTH AWARD

Chelsea striker Diego Costa has won the Barclays Player of the Month award for the month of August.

Diego Costa accepts August accolade

The Spanish international found the net four times in the three games he played in August, scoring Chelsea’s first goal in each of the wins.

The 25-year-old has been an instant success in England, notching in the wins over Burnley and Leicester and scoring twice in the Blues' 6-3 win over Everton at Goodison Park.

On accepting the trophy, Diego Costa said: ‘I’m very happy to win this award. It is important to begin well at a new club and I’m pleased with both my start to the season and also the team’s, which is the most important thing.

‘I hope to continue scoring goals to help out the team and keep making our fantastic supporters happy. I thank my team-mates as they have helped me win this award.’ 

The other players who were nominated for the Premier League award for August were his Chelsea team-mate Cesc Fabregas, plus two Swansea City players, Nathan Dyer and Gylfi Sigurdsson, and Aston Villa's Andreas Weimann.

Also, Swansea City boss Garry Monk was named the Premier League Manager of the Month for August.

Swansea City boss Garry Monk wins manager of month award

The Swans won all three of their league fixtures in the first month of the season, including a 2-1 opening-day victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford.

The Welsh club also beat Burnley and West Bromwich Albion at the Liberty Stadium, keeping a clean sheet in both of those matches.

Monk was short-listed alongside Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, whose team also won their three games and are ahead of Swansea at the top of the division on goal difference, Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert and Mark Hughes of Stoke City.

He attributed the award to the group effort of his Swansea squad and staff, but says it is a case of 'starting again' after a break for international football.

“It’s a collective thing as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “It’s not just for me, it’s for all of the guys.

“It’s going well for us. We’ve had the international break so there has been a couple of weeks between games for us, so we’re starting fresh and we’re starting again really.”

Monk and Costa will be in direct opposition on Saturday when Swansea play Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Also this week Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech collected the Premier League Golden Glove trophy he won at the end of last season.

Cech collected the Premier League Golden Glove trophy he won at the end of last season

Cech shared the honour with Arsenal’s Wojciech Szczesny with the two goalkeepers collecting 16 clean sheets each over the course of the 2013/14 season.

‘I am very happy to receive my third Golden Glove award,’ Cech said.

‘It’s always a pleasure to receive individual awards but I know that it would not be possible without my team-mates who work very hard to ensure the team keeps a clean sheet.’

Cech previously won the award for the 2004/05 and 2009/10 seasons.