Diego Costa, the Menace: Analysing the Red Card Incident During Chelsea vs Arsenal Game

And Diego Costa was at it again, last year during this period, the earlier caption would have referred to his goal scoring ability but against Arsenal, he showed the other side of Diego Costa. The nasty, squabbling and rather petulant footballer that he is surfaced as he helped get Gabriel Paulista sent off during his side’s against the Gunners.

The incident or incidents, depending on how you look at it goes into the black book of Diego Costa, it all started just before the end of the first half with Costa and Koscielny tangling in the box. Costa got up from his fall and chest-bumped Koscielny who ended up on the floor as well. Then it all broke out with Paulista running in and having a bit of a go at Costa while Costa himself was no saint and laid his hands on Paulista.

The referee and players had to come and separate Costa and Paulista. Replays suggested that Costa and Koscielny were tangling earlier and the Chelsea striker had his hands on Koscielny’s face and even had a wild swing at it before the fracas with Paulista.

Costa should have been sent off or at least have had a yellow card when he bumped Koscielny but referee Mike Dean was rather poor on this day and brandished a yellow card each for Costa and Paulista. When it seemed that all the madness had died down, a few minutes after the yellow card as Costa and Paulista were walking away, Costa became incest and the Chelsea team followed suit in surrounding the referee like they have done always when it comes to trying to send a player off.

Mike Dean brandished a direct red card to Paulista and replays showed that he flicked his leg out at Costa as the two players marched back after the yellow cards were given to them. Paulista might have been a little daft to commit the act but Arsene Wenger, after the game was livid that Costa was not sent off before the fracas with Paulista.

To be honest, it is a bit of a surprise that the referee didn’t send of Diego Costa in the first place but that is what he is good at, getting under the skin of people. Chelsea needed something in this game to show that they are back in the race for the title or at least have their game back, they might not have shown their devastating attack or defence but that bite is back in Chelsea or at least in Costa, who again was the game changer for the Blues.

It will also be important to see how the FA deals with the situation as they had discussed they would look at certain incidents where a players tries to send another player off, this would be a great test case and if Diego Costa does not get a retrospective ban for the swing of the arm, it will be a surprise but seeing how horrible the FA is at dispensing punishment with regards to tough challenges and arm flings, don’t expect much from the FA as well.