Out of form? Who’s out of form? Diego Costa looks as comfortable as ever.
The Chelsea striker didn’t score in his club’s 2-0 victory over Arsenal on Saturday, but the notorious agitator scored the decisive blow by baiting Gabriel Paulista into a silly red card near the end of the first half.
With Arsenal’s defense holding strong at Stamford Bridge, Costa got into a tussle with Laurent Koscielny in the box. Gabriel stepped in to support his fellow central defender, and before long he was swiping at Costa’s neck, jawing with Costa while walking down the pitch and ultimately flicking his heel at Costa to earn a second yellow and a sending off.
Eden Hazard polished off the win with a goal in stoppage time, and Chelsea avoided the worst six-game start for a defending Premier League champion, an ignominious distinction held by Blackburn Rovers’ four points over the same length of time in 1995. If things broke differently, the Blues could have taken up residence in the bottom three of the table after the weekend.
Costa was the main reason it didn’t happen. His form has been criticized by both the media and himself, and he still only has one goal to his name this season. So he found another way to contribute.
Call him dirty, or a troll, or a pantomime villain. Any and all fit the bill. Costa went praying for a fragile disposition on Saturday, and he found a willing mark in Arsenal.
What’s ironic about his duping of Gabriel is that Koscielny actually won (if you want to term it that) the initial skirmish. Costa raked the French defender across the face, a cardable offense for sure, and then bumped into him face-to-face in an aggressive manner.
Koscielny, a veteran of over 150 Premier League appearances, went right to ground in an attempt to use Costa’s scheming against him, but referee Mike Dean and his assistants were either unaware or uninterested.
The fact that Dean is at the center of yet another Arsenal officiating controversy won’t sit well with the fans, and it definitely didn’t sit well with manager Arsene Wenger, who suggested Dean and his crew were “weak” after the match.
By the precedent set in sending off Gabriel, it certainly seems like Costa should have joined him in the dressing room.
But Costa didn’t see red. He only left Arsenal red with rage and disappointment.
Chelsea is now unbeaten in its last eight Premier League meetings with the Gunners, who haven’t scored a league goal against their London rivals since Jan. 20, 2013.
This time, there were no mistakes in the set-up or style of play. Chelsea has been leaking points all season, and Wenger put Arsenal in position to scoop them up, playing Santi Cazorla deeper in the midfield to maximize his control and creativity while opting for Theo Walcott’s speed to provide a more consistent threat up top. The only drawback is Per Mertesacker, Koscielny’s regular defensive partner, was still unavailable due to a virus that kept him out of Arsenal’s midweek Champions League trip to Dinamo Zagreb.
That thrust Gabriel into a powderkeg for which he proved unprepared. Costa wrought havoc right until the moment he was subbed off in the 82nd minute, clobbering and prodding and ultimately unraveling the Gunners as his manager Jose Mourinho, an expert provocateur himself, looked on.
For all Arsenal did right, the only tactic Mourinho needed was to deploy Costa. Aggravatingly enough, it worked.
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