Arsenal defender Rob Holding has reflected on his confrontation with Chelsea striker Diego Costa in last season’s FA Cup final.

The young centre-back knew he was in for a battle against Costa when Arsenal played Chelsea in last season’s FA Cup final, but he refused to be intimidated. In one of the several enduring moments of the final, Holding responded to Costa’s antics by laughing and refrained from being dragged down to the striker’s level.

Speaking to Arsenal Player, Holding has reflected on the incident. “I knew Diego Costa’s game was to wind up centre halves,” he said. “I’d seen it many times, watching the games on TV and how he would always wind people up off the ball.

“I knew he’d try something with me being young, I knew he’d think he could bully me a bit but I just stood up to him. I think we did that well. When you’re hot, frustrated and wanting to do well, you get that bit of passion which comes out inside you.

“If any other Chelsea player had done something to me, I would give them a bit back because I was brought up like that. I was brought up to never shy away from anything.

“I’m not sure how he changed his game [afterwards], but I just think he knew that he wasn’t going to intimidate me. I think that’s what he thought he was going to do because of the age difference. Once he saw I stood up to him, he thought, ‘I’ll try something else here’.”

Although Costa did go on to score, Holding had an impressive game – the latest in a string of fine performances since he became a first-team regular. One of those performances, against Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final, stood out for his casual dribble past Sergio Aguero.

“I’ve watched it back a few times because at the time I didn’t know what I was doing!” he said. “I was just defending channels, running it, bringing it back and defending, looking for a pass. When there wasn’t a pass on, I just put my foot on the ball and ended up doing a nice bit of footwork. He went down and I got away from him.”

Holding has taken a shine to Wembley, winning all three games he’s been involved in. I think he will now continue to be a first-team regular for Arsenal this season so long as we stick with the back three. We hope there’ll be many more memorable moments to come from him.