This match was the epitome of what the Premier League has become. The theatre was as much in the post-match analysis, both managers trading insults at each other and their respective teams.
And yet there is no doubt that Costa turned this match in Chelsea’s favour. Arsene Wenger’s team were lured into a fight they could never win, a streetwise scrap. They lost their heads and consequently the game, ending up with nine men on the pitch.
Yet even though both Gabriel and Santi Cazorla’s red cards were entirely legitimate, a powerful sense of injustice pervaded. That’s just how it is with Costa; he gets right under your skin. And so it is with Chelsea. With just the one victory in the Premier League, they had to find a way to win; any way would do.
The pivotal incident occurred at the end of the first half. Costa’s arms were all over Koscielny’s face as they battled; another pass came and he aimed slapped at the Frenchman’s face, his first potential red card.
Costa fell but sprung up and body checked Koscielny to the floor, a potential second red card. Gabriel, incensed, grabbed Costa around the neck and aimed a slap. He might have gone for that but Mike Dean decided a yellow card a piece sufficed.
Like squabbling toddlers, each desired the last word. Costa had it, emphatically. Whispering into Gabriel’s ear, he provoked a flick of the foot from the Arsenal defender, reminiscent of David Beckham’s in 1998; not especially offensive but enough to register as violent conduct.
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