Arsenal’s Gabriel, No 5, reacts and puts his arms onto Chelsea’s…
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While the Blues are refusing to comment on the matter until they received the written reasons for the controversial Spain international’s ban, they are known to be considering their options in the meantime.
Costa’s suspension starts tonight (Wednesday), so he will definitely miss the Capital One Cup tie against Walsall – although he was not scheduled to feature against the League One club anyway.
Jose Mourinho has hit out at Diego Costa’s three-match ban and the overturning of Gabriel Paulista’s red card by insisting: “Retaliation is now allowed”.
“It’s a shame for us to have lost Costa for three games”.
According to the FA website, Diego Costa’s violent conduct charge from the past weekend has been upheld, and his three match ban is effective immediately.
The striker was handed a three-match ban for violent conduct following his clash with Arsenal’s Laurent Koscielny on Saturday.
Chelsea were left furious, believing they are the victims of a witch hunt and issued a strongly worded statement saying they were “extremely disappointed” with the FA verdict.
Gabriel still faces a separate charge of improper conduct for his reaction after being shown the red card by referee Dean and has until 6pm on Thursday to reply.
Moments later, with Costa and Gabriel continuing to snipe at each other, the Arsenal defender flicked his heel towards the Chelsea striker and Dean reacted by sending the Brazilian off.
Costa remained on the pitch and Chelsea then overcame a nine man Arsenal, who also had Santi Cazorla sent off for picking up two yellow cards, with the help of a goal from defender Kurt Zouma.
“The Chelsea forward was involved in an incident with Arsenal’s Laurent Koscielny in the 43rd minute of the game“.
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“Every time we lose a player it’s not good for the team”.
