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From Diego Costa’s petulant belligerence to Gabriel’s exuberant overzealousness, card-happy referee to cold-war feuding managers, the latest instalment of the London derby was not short of drama even though the football on display was of a lesser quality than we have seen in times past. In the end, Chelsea ‘comfortably’ won 2 – 0 at Stamford Bridge to move to a more respectable position on the log but what did we learn from battle No 15 between Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger?
1. COSTA IS MORE GARBAGE THAN BAGGAGE
It’s nothing anybody who’s been watching the Chelsea striker would not know before Saturday’s lunch-time game but the Spain international gave a whole new meaning to ridiculous with his tantrums, foul play and temperament which led to a massive scuffle towards the end of the first half. Diego Costa was lucky to be on the pitch after he appeared to have swung an elbow in the face of Koscielny but then he was CLEARLY culpable for head-butting the Arsenal defender who went down like a pole just a few seconds after the first incident.
Unfortunately, it was this action that Gabriel reacted to which led to his expulsion. Strikers are paid to create and score goals, not cause confusion and settle petty scores for every imaginable slight on the pitch. Some may like the feisty character of the Brazilian-born striker but I think he’s a disruptive influence who causes more havoc at the wrong end of the pitch.
Strikers are bought to score goals and, last season, when he was on a scoring roll everybody turned the other eye and excused his nasty habit of provoking ugly scenes over irrelevancies but this term, with just one league goal in six games, the pressure is getting to Costa and he’s doing a poor job of handling it. Had he been sent-off, which would have been the correct punishment for his silly action, the game could have turned in favour of the opposition and manager Jose Mourinho would have been singing a different song.
The Chelsea manager said: “If you want to speak about Diego Costa with me, it is just to say he played like he has to play. That is why you have full stadiums, you sell to televisions all around the world for millions and millions, because the game has to be played like that. Fantastic, Diego. Man of the match for me.” It’s all well and good now that the player involved is Mourinho’s. I would like to see his face the day one player does half of what Costa did to Koscielny to any of his players and still get one of his own players sent off. That would really be the day.
In my opinion, Costa may be a scorer of great goals (like the one he got in midweek against Tel Aviv Maccabi in the Champions League) but a day will come when the team will be made to pay heavily for his several indiscretions. It would be unfair but then it will be just recompense for indulging him for this long.
2. REF MIKE DEAN LOST THE PLOT:
I’m always of the opinion that a referee is the only man who could guarantee if a game will end peacefully with few talking points and fairness to both the losing and winning sides and this opinion was re-inforced when I saw ref Mike Dean struggling vainly all through the game to assert his authority. His assistants and the fourth official did not help him either. He failed to spot Diego Costa head-butting Koscielny and Gabriel stepping on the foot of the belligerent Costa. But while his assistant (or probably the fourth official) called his attention to Gabriel’s action and the Brazilian was appropriately sent off after a second bookable offence, he completely missed Costa’s action and so did his other colleagues who could have alerted him.
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Then you saw both Arsenal and Chelsea players running to crowd the referee out before any decision was taken in a bid to intimidate him. These scenes are certainly not those you expect to see in the Premier League where, even though the referees are not infallible, they are renowned for strict handling of games.
Ref Dean didn’t win too many friends on the back of that woeful performance and Garth Crooks, BBC pundit said: “Every so often I think you need a referee in a situation who is sensible, and treats the players like men. Mike Dean is a really good referee but he has one fault – he wants to be the star too often. It’s not about you, Mike. People pay good money to see good football. It’s not about you behaving like a schoolteacher.” I’m not one to give match officials the stick but I certainly agree with Crooks. Mr Dean, without doubt, had a bad day at the office in my opinion.
3. GABRIEL WAS NAÏVE
The young Arsenal defender blotted his excellent copy-book when he allowed a momentary rush of blood to the head to lead to his sending off in a match in which he had been playing particularly well alongside Laurent Koscielny. The Brazilian rashly reacted to Costa’s head-butt on Koscielny while the more experienced Frenchman, the victim of the assault, kept his head and his cool.
As it turned out, it was Koscielny who had to restrain his partner from launching a physical attack on Costa and it was funny that while Gabriel eventually got sent-off, Costa was still on the pitch when he should have been the one to take an early shower. It boiled down to naivety and youthful exuberance on his side for getting involved in another person’s fight and subsequently punished for someone else’s fault.
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Premier League legend, Alan Shearer labeled the youngster “Costa sucked Gabriel right in, and Gabriel is absolutely pathetic for falling for it, he really is.” While I don’t think Gabriel’s action was ‘pathetic’, I agree that he allowed himself to be provoked by Costa and paid the ultimate price for that moment of madness, leaving his team to face an uphill task with a man less.
At 24, Gabriel is still very young but undoubtedly talented and will look back at Saturday’s game and feel like he caused his team the three points at stake. He will beat himself up for being so gullible and he would be right. But, most definitely, he would come back wiser and grow into a much more better player in the heart of Arsenal’s defence. You can bet on that.
4. WALCOTT IS NO CENTRE-FORWARD
Prior to the Champions League defeat at Dinamo Belgrade and on the back of scoring 11 goals in his previous 11 starts for the Gunners, Theo Walcott had begged manager Arsene Wenger for a more central role and a starting berth. He said, after scoring in the 2-0 win over Stoke City: “I’ve said to the manager that I’d like to play up front. I can play in any of those three positions up front, so it’s a good option for the manager to have,” and also had the backing of club legend Ian Wright to keep his striking role but on the evidence of what we saw on Saturday, Walcott will do himself and the team a whole lot of good if he plays wide.
He started and scored at Dinamo even though they ultimately lost 2-1 but against Chelsea last Saturday, the England forward showed that he’s not capable of playing as a top striker for the club. At least not for now and certainly not against such a big opposition like Chelsea. Times without number he was shoved off the ball by Kurt Zouma and, when he got a rare chance, he side-footed tamely into the hands of Asmir Begovic when it was easier to score.
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One hallmark of a great striker is that he could go 89 minutes without a sniff of goal but when he finally does with less than a minute to play, you can count on him to bury that one opportunity. None of Arsenal’s best clear sight of goal came through Walcott. Rather Alexis Sanchez and the hardworking Santi Cazorla who was unfortunate to be sent off put the pressure on the Chelsea backline on the few occasions that they did a fast-break after some unusual solid defending.
Even the much vilified Olivier Giroud, for the limited period he was on the pitch, was more of a threat than the light-weight Walcott. In my opinion, Walcott should remain on the wing, work more on his delivery into the box (he can learn from David Beckham’s manual) and become a dangerous threat from the right flank rather than cry for a striking role where he would end up less effective than we all know he can be. Not everybody will become a Thierry Henry or Ian Wright for the Gunners. You can also become a legend on the flanks, wing-wizard Walcott.
5. MOURINHO/WENGER FEUD HERE TO STAY
Asked before the game, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger gave an indication that he might not be observing the pre-match formalities of shaking the hand of his opposite number Jose Mourinho. He said: “I don’t want to talk about that. I have nothing more to say about this situation.’ The Frenchman perfunctorily shook his rival’s hand but you could tell there was no love lost between the duo.
After the game, and given what had transpired on the pitch, there was no way anybody would have expected to see another handshake. Rather, we were treated to taunts, jeers and veiled insults lobbed at each other.
Wenger complained about the referee’s failure to send off Diego Costa. He said: “I think Diego Costa is a red card and I wouldn’t like to be Mike Dean tonight because I can not understand the situations. Diego Costa, twice, should have been sent off with Koscielny. Look at the situation before the cross comes in. He hits him in the face on purpose and he makes a fuss of it. In every game he uses aggravation and gets away with it because of the weakness of the referees.”
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His opposite number, Mourinho countered with: “I played against Arsenal 12, 15, 18 times, and only once did he (Wenger) not moan. On that day we lost the game, we lost the cup, it was not good for us. We behaved in a fantastic way. No excuses. Not crying. Not moaning. Just Mr Jose Mourinho, my players and Chelsea football club. I have to cope with my defeats. He has to cope with his defeat.’
The best statement, after winning your first ever game against Mourinho after 14 attempts in last August’s Community Shield match, was to have gone ahead to beat him again to show that the jinx has been broken. That, coming after the Shield win and on the back of current disastrous results for his team since the start of the season, would have been a perfect shut-up for the Chelsea manager but unfortunately the game was lost even if, admittedly, you finished with nine men.
Knowing Mourinho for who he is, the Portuguese will smile behind the back of his hand and say ‘You know what, Mr Wenger? Bring it on because you ain’t seen nothing yet.’
The most important fact between both managers is the one which states that Mourinho has won 14 out of their 15 encounters and that is the mountain Wenger must endeavour to surmount this and in the coming season.
So we, lucky fans that we are, are guaranteed the regular spat between the Premier League’s most accomplished managers for a long time to come because none of the two appear to be in a hurry to leave their jobs.
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