Everton midfielder Gareth Barry has confirmed that he was not bitten by Diego Costa as the controversial Chelsea striker found himself at the centre of a fresh storm on Saturday.
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It was another crushing blow for Chelsea with the club’s last hope of silverware this season ending at Goodison Park with former player Romelu Lukaku netting an inspired brace.
Costa also denied biting Barry in a club statement late on Saturday.
Much of the attention focussed on whether Costa, who became embroiled in a late face-to-face brouhaha with Everton’s Gareth Barry, had gone as far as biting his opponent, Luis Suarez-style.
Watch the incident below and decide for yourself.
But Barry, who was sent off as well soon after for a second bookable offence, has backed Costa’s claim that he wasn’t bitten.
If you see him medically, maybe we should have said the Champions League would be hard, the FA Cup, hard because not of is not lack of fitness, but little injures.
“It was not a key moment, it did not have an impact on the result or the scoreline, it came after both the goals had been scored”.
“It is a game full of emotions and there were two sending-offs. For the record Diego did not bite me”, he posted.
“During my spell I haven’t seen him go over the edge”.
“The referee doesn’t have to protect, but must know when they are going after them”.
Diego Costa had a fighting spirit and I would like to praise the referee.
However, when the referee, Michael Oliver, showed the red card Costa angrily protested in the face of the official and did not leave the pitch immediately.
“If you sell a player for those sort of amounts I think you can get the benefit of adding three or four players in your squad”.
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The 27-year-old was also punished retrospectively with a three-match suspension after he clashed with Arsenal’s Laurent Koscielny in a Premier League game at Stamford Bridge in September 2015.
