Chelsea manager José Mourinho has called the Arsenal players “stupid” for allowing Diego Costa to influence them on Saturday afternoon.

The striker attempted to bully and intimidate the Arsenal defenders, which proved ineffective against Laurent Koscielny but served to rile Gabriel.

The Arsenal defender was booked, as was Costa, as the two clash but foolishly gave referee Mike Dean an excuse to send him off for a flick out at the Chelsea man as the two walked back to the halfway line.

Amazingly, José Mourinho has managed to defend his player.

“The players are tired of hearing me talk about emotional control. They had emotional control,” the Chelsea boss said after the game.

“Arsenal didn’t have emotional control. When you don’t have it you are punished. We did well, they did not.

“If he [Diego Costa] winds players up it is because the others are stupid.”

Diego Costa didn’t ‘wind up’ Arsenal players, he attacked them. There’s a distinct difference. Bar Gabriel, our players showed incredible control. Laurent Koscielny, in particular, was superb in the way he shrugged off the manhandling of Costa, who struck the defender in the face twice in a matter of seconds.

It can certainly be argued that Gabriel was stupid, if not the was certainly naive, and Arsenal went down to 10 men as a result.

Nonetheless, the actions of Diego Costa shouldn’t be condoned and anyone who suggests he had control or that Arsenal’s reactions were the issue is simply wrong. The referee needs to do his job to stop Diego Costa from getting away with the way he acts, and Mike Dean didn’t at the weekend.