Just as everyone expected, tempers flared in Sunday’s match between title contenders Manchester City and Chelsea FC. What was a little more unexpected was the ridiculous amount of yellow cards handed out by referee Mike Dean, eight in total, and the sending off of Pablo Zabaleta.
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The Manchester City defender was initially cautioned for a cynical foul in the 32nd minute after he was left in the dust by Eden Hazard. Zabaleta must have nightmares about Hazard as he is consistently made to look foolish by the Belgian superstar. The first yellow was well-deserved and the second even more so.
The second came in the 66th minute and it was for another silly foul on Diego Costa. Zabaleta tussled with the Spanish striker and eventually hacked him down from behind. Costa reacted angrily and he got up off the ground and pushed Zabaleta by his neck for the foul and to force Zabaleta to get his hands off of him. There was little debate about the worthiness of the sending off but Zabaleta later tweeted that he thought Diego Costa should have been sent off as well.
The Argentine sent out the following tweets after the match:
I would like to apologise to everyone for my red card today.
— Pablo Zabaleta (@pablo_zabaleta) September 21, 2014
However after seeing this image I can't believe that Diego Costa remained on the pitch. pic.twitter.com/WwjyG9CXzx
— Pablo Zabaleta (@pablo_zabaleta) September 21, 2014
It is easy to take the images above out of context and judging from just that it can be argued that Diego Costa should have been sent off as well. In reality, Diego Costa showed tremendous restraint after he was hacked down by Zabaleta and had the back of his head grabbed by the defender as well. Zabaleta should have stopped tweeting after he apologized and should focus on not committing silly fouls instead of trying to get opposing strikers sent off.
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