My attitude to Diego Costa has always been the same, I guess, as that of most neutral enthusiasts: he’s been a bit of a lad and maybe a shade over-competitive at times, but he’s attractive to watch just as Eric Cantona and, say, Hristo Stoichkov once were in their primes. A pantomime villain with true class.
He’s such a fine centre-forward that, on the basis of his first season in England, some of us thought he would eventually rank alongside Didier Drogba among the Chelsea and Premier League greats. Even fans of other clubs tended to couple criticism with a muttered: “Mind you, I wish he played for us.”
What Diego did to Emre Can — the infamous stamp at Anfield — was punished and would be learned from. Or so we hoped. We were wrong.
Against Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, Diego was a disgrace. Repeatedly nasty, his devious digs appeared designed to provoke and spoil. Perhaps Gabriel and others should not have reacted as they did and Arsenal certainly should not complain about either red card, for both were fully justified (despite Santi Cazorla’s silly grins of protest), so Mike Dean got those decisions right.
Chelsea vs Arsenal - player ratings
It was what the referee and his assistants missed, and the rising tide of Diego-inspired violence he seemed to ignore, that let the game down on Saturday. There are times when you wonder if there is some kind of conspiracy to allow the elite English game to become televisually angry — and this was one.
Excessively cynical? Perhaps. You cannot quite imagine top refs sitting down with League officials to define higher limits of tolerance. It’s no more than a nod and a wink, if that.
But this case showed laissez-faire refereeing is in danger of causing more trouble than it provides free‑flowing entertainment. It was a running brawl too far — and we know who started it. Only stinging retrospective punishment — and here the FA must do their duty — can meet it.
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