It’s unbelievable, to say the least, that people like Diego Costa get away with what they do.
They don’t always, of course. There are those rare referees who book Adnan Januzaj for diving in the box, or send off Zinedine Zidane for headbutting. But these are cases in the clear exceptions to what is turning out to be quite an ugly norm. And it’s a norm the Football Association are currently too lily-livered to do anything about, and probably will be for a while.
The fact that Diego Costa was allowed to get what he wanted after pushing, shoving and provoking his way through two Arsenal players is so maddeningly unfair, you wonder if we’re in a comic book and the trauma of that level will make Gabriel Paulista some sort of superhero in the future. I’m certain he felt that rage.
The way the entire incident panned out was so slapstick, so surreal and so Arsenal that one actually had to wonder for a second if it was scripted. It wasn’t, of course, but while every club has the feeling that every referee has it in for them, on Saturday it genuinely felt that was accurate.
Perhaps what magnifies the frustration is the fact that while thousands in the stadium and millions around the globe saw the repulsive, satanic snake carry out what he carries out best, they didn’t see the referee prosecute the offender. Upon watching replays, everyone knew something worse than an infringement had taken place. You don’t need to work one day in football or one thousand to know right from wrong. That’s basic, that’s rudiment, and whether you’re an Arsenal fan, a Chelsea fan or a fan of golf, the guilty party was more than apparent.
However, the fact that one man – and, by nasty coincidence, the only man who can do something about injustice on the pitch – does not see it is sickening. It seems like the worst form of footballing treason possible, because whichever way you look at it, Gabriel’s sending off was why we lost. It wasn’t because of our set-piece defending, not because of Gabriel’s own defending and not because of Arsène Wenger (yeah, I’m saying it).
However – and this will be hard to swallow, even though it’s past due we do – such is the standard of Premier League refereeing that we’re to expect terrible decisions by them. It shouldn’t, and I hate to say it is, but refereeing incompetence’s have become part and parcel of the game. Expecting the FA to grow a backbone or Jose Mourinho to come out with some mea culpa about the whole incident is our idea of an ideal world which, surprise, we do not live in. As much as it is beyond us, people like Mike Dean will continue having a job and people like Mourinho will continue taking the points home.
Of course, public pressure would mean that Costa would get some sort of retroactive fine/ban, but don’t kid yourself that’s any kind of justice. It’s not justice for us, and who are you giving justice to if not to the victim themselves? Justice would have been Costa sent off on Saturday and Gabriel on the pitch. Justice would have been Arsenal given a much better – and deserved chance – to win the game back then. They won’t get that now. The fact that Chelsea defeated us 2-0 on the 19th of September will be set in stone, the circumstances of which will remain irrelevant.
They shouldn’t. Even if the result has escaped justice, Diego Costa must get what’s coming to him. Not through FA hearings from where they’re supposed to but won’t, but at least, at the very least, through the media. This guy is a lesser talented but more successful Luis Suàrez. If the referees won’t prosecute him, the pundits on air must.
Rio Ferdinand’s analysis on BT was commendable, but one man can’t turn the tide alone. If football wish to see cheats like Costa put in line, it needs to be proved how out of line he is in the first place.
Put pressure on him. Make it happen.
-Santi [Follow me on Twitter @ArsenalBlogz ]
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