BLUES forward Diego Costa was at his imperious anti-hero best as he provoked and hounded Arsenal centre-half Gabriel Paulista into a stupid red card to help the struggling reigning champions to a welcome 2-0 derby win over their arch-rivals at Stamford Bridge.
Score was goalless as a forgettable half wound to a lifeless halt before Costa, who had all game long sought fights and squabbles with opponents, got his wish and lit up the atmosphere as he rough-handled Laurent Koscienly in an aerial battle.
Costa purposely scratched the defender’s face as the both primed for an aerial duel. But as if that wasn’t enough, the contemptible Chelsea forward slapped the defender on the face in the fallout of the duel which he lost unsurprisingly, given his poor form. Each of the two fouls would normally lead to instant expulsion had they been spotted. But sadly for the Gunners, ref Mike Dean and his assistants failed to spot the infringements.
Yet, that was just the tip of the iceberg as Costa rose and assaulted the recovering center-half, pushing him to the ground with his chest!
Forget about his first two fouls on Koscienly, the push was damning enough and should be a straight red, never mind that the Arsenal defender made a bit meal of the contact. But surprise, surprise, Dean and his team of assistants, including Mike Oliver as the fourth official, didn’t see Costa’s violent conduct!!
To his professional credit, Koscienly didn’t react, which probably prompted his partner Gabriel to come into the fray, pulling and shoving at the Chelsea forward to diffuse the situation.
Dean spun around, calmed the situation and issued both Costa and Gabriel a yellow card when a mandatory red should have gone to the repulsive Blues hitman! Thence, Gabriel’s bizarre naivety took over as he continued exchanging words with Dark Artist Costa which led to the Gunner stupidly but almost innocuously kicking back at the Blues whiner.
Immediately, Costa called Dean’s attention to the indiscretion and to Arsenal’s dismay, Gabby was sent into early showers, correct decision going by the letters of the law, but wrong in the context of the game which required common sense officiating or ruling with a human face.
And former England international Danny Mills agrees with me: “A ridiculous series of incidents that lead to the sending off. Costa I think was very, very fortunate. The actual sending off, the straight red card (to Gabriel), I think is ridiculous. It’s not dangerous, it’s not hurting anyone.” That is why common sense is very necessary here.
First, refs are encouraged to keep lid on handbags and infractions as much as possible in big matches all in attempt to keep the contest balance and fair. It would take extreme petulance or dangerous play or other serious infractions to force refs hands into issuing red cards.
But to Gunners cost, Dean was trigger-happy, and worse still, Arsenal faithful could argue with some merit that the ref only applied the harshest interpretations of the law when it concerned their team – Oscar for example could have seen red too for dangerous play in the second half shortly before he was substituted, never mind that Costa could have seen three reds in the same match.
With the expulsion, momentum swung totally in Chelsea’s way as the match became a procession.
Secondly, refs are encouraged to appraise the situation properly before meting out stiff punishments, “give yourself some seconds,” argue veteran refs. This little breather would help you consider a whole lot of things, including the incident, personality traits of the players involved, antecedents during the game if any and a whole lot more.
In this short moment of pause or calm appraisal, the computer in your skull would have enough seconds to properly analyse the situation and come to very competent conclusion. Dean simply failed to heed the advice of his seniors, thus killing what should have been an intriguing contest.
The second red issued to Santi Cazorla (a result of a second yellow) was also right by the letters of the law, though many a ref might have pulled him to one side and give him his last warning since he was already on a yellow. I must admit Cesc Fabregas theatricals after the mistimed tackle couldn’t have helped his fellow Spaniard. Still, Dean could have chosen to officiate with a human face which he didn’t.
Unsurprisingly, a livid Arsene Wenger berated Dean in his caustic post-match: “I would not like to be Mike Dean tonight,” began the distraught Gunners boss in a chat with SkySport. “Costa twice should be sent off. He hits him in the face in purpose. In every game he has aggravation and he gets away with it because of the weakness of the referee. We knew before the game he is only looking at that. Gabriel should not have responded at all but the two sending offs for us and Costa staying on the pitch is a shame.”
Mou described Costa as his man of the match in post-match: “I don’t have a view on the sending off. Man of the match for sure was Diego Costa. He brought everything to the game.”
I can understand Mou’s praise of his repulsive forward because he would have provided the Special One with ready-made excuse for failure had Dean done the right thing by sending him off even before his altercation with Gabriels and Chelsea went on to lose the match. In the end everything worked in Blues favour as not only did Costa escape punishment, he also successfully stampeded Arsenal into conceding advantage to the Blues.
Yes, Mou will argue, he didn’t need to score goals only to affect the game. Winning his team numerical advantage by any repulsive means is part of the game – the end justifies the means.
But sincerely, I’d expect Costa to be punished retroactively by the FA. The Brazil-born Spain international has perfected the dark art that he is yet to bag a red card in 44 BPL matches since he joined from Atletico Madrid last season, despite his usual over-the-line conduct!
For a player who can start a storm in an empty room, it’s a big miracle that the combustible Chelsea forward continues to escape referees punishments week after week. Certainly, it’s time officials started paying special attention to this dark artist who continues to bring the game into disrepute with poignant impunity.
COMMENTS