As far as Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho is concerned, Diego Costa is “the man of the match today” as the Blues beat Arsenal 2-0. It seems the rest of the football world, those who do not slant in favor of Chelsea, saw controversy at best, dirty play at worst, in Diego Costa’s performance. Some even called for Costa to be charged and banned by the FA.
ESPN FC even referred to Costa as an “evil genius,” before opining that Arsenal Center back Gabriel was “idiotic to fall for Costa’s typical wind-up antics.”
Take a look at this play and judge for yourself:
Yes, that’s a pretty obvious red card there.
Yet Costa was not sent off, or even disciplined for that matter. This incident preluded a later dust-up that would result in the Gunners having to compete sans one less player. If justice had prevailed, Chelsea would have been the London club competing with fewer outfield players for significant time today, not Arsenal.
“Chelsea’s Costa and his evil genius struck again. The squabbles came to a head with a confrontation in the Arsenal penalty box. Costa’s arms were all over the place, appearing to catch Laurent Koscielny with both his hand and forearm, before the two bumped chests and Koscielny fell to the floor.
Then Gabriel got involved. Eventually, Costa had wound up Gabriel to the extent that referee Mike Dean cautioned the Arsenal centre-back. Then, extraordinarily, as things appeared to be settling down, Gabriel subtly kicked out at Costa.”
That’s pretty much how it went down, and here’s the Arsene Wenger post match interview video below:
"@diegocosta should have been sent off." An angry Arsene Wenger reflects on all the big talking points from #CHEARS. http://t.co/q01bdMwuUI
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) September 19, 2015
Wenger believes that his side suffered a “big” “sense of injustice.”
“The two sendings off for us and Diego Costa staying on the pitch is a shame,” Wenger said, adding that he believes Costa should have been sent off twice. The Gunners boss added that this type of behavior is typical for Costa.
“He makes a fuss of it, and in every game it’s aggravation and he gets away it with because of the weakness of the referee. Look at the pictures,” the Frenchman said.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is part of the FOX Sports Engage Network.Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous talk radio stations all across the country. Catch his Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 The Zone.
Follow him on Twitter and Instagram