After his antics in Chelsea’s 2-0 win over Arsenal, Diego Costa is set to face a FA probe this week
Diego Costa was instrumental in Chelsea FC’s 2-0 victory over Arsenal on Saturday afternoon. Going about his business in his usual physical and conniving ways, Costa provoked Gunners defender Gabriel Paulista into a regrettable kick out at the Spaniard, an outlash that forced referee Mike Dean to show him a red card. With Dean’s match report due today, Costa is set to find out whether the Football Association (FA) will take any further action.
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Chelsea were riding the confidence of a 4-0 drubbing over Maccabi Tel-Aviv as they prepared for the big clash with the London rivals. The Blues knew that Arsenal would pose a significantly bigger threat than the Israeli outfit and they would need to pull out all the stops to get the victory.
Evidently, pulling out all the stops involved what has been widely-regarded as dirty play from Costa. After having his hands all over Laurent Koscielny’s face, the striker chest bumped the Frenchman to the ground in the ensuing stand-off. Gabriel subsequently came to the defence of his teammate resulting in his and Costa’s booking.
As they moved up the pitch the pair were still verbally going at it before Gabriel flicked his leg at the Chelsea man around the halfway line. Costa made the most of it and Dean dismissed the defender, much to the annoyance of Gunners fans and management.
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Arsene Wenger admitted that Gabriel deserved to be sent off, but complained about the antics of the striker. Jose Mourinho, meanwhile, claimed that he was ‘fantastic’. Having said that, many Blues fans are struggling to defend Costa’s actions and he may well be served with a retrospective ban by the Premier League’s administrators.
The key in all this is what is contained in Dean’s report. Should the referee claim that he saw the whole incident including Costa’s hands on Koscielny and had decided not to take any action, then Costa is in the clear. Should he say that the officials did not see the fracas, that would be bad news for the player.
As The Telegraph states, the incident would be referred to a panel in the latter case and given the clear footage of the infringement, it is likely that a three-match violent conduct ban will be handed down.
"Should Dean admit that he did not see the incident with Koscielny and would have sent off Costa if he had, then the Chelsea star will face a three-match ban for violent conduct."
Personally, I felt that the way in which the player behaved was abhorrent. It was less the Koscielny incident (I am a big proponent of the physical game) but more the childish and petulant way he pressured Mike Dean to bring out the red card that irked me. Gabriel barely touched him yet Costa cried like a baby.
Chelsea will certainly miss the striker if the FA do take action later today or this week, but it is hard to deny that a punishment isn’t deserved.
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