I kinda feel like I’m about to tell you all water is wet here, but, bear with me – who doesn’t love a healthy dollop of indignation when they’ve been wronged?
I know I do.
When it was revealed that Arsenal were set to appeal Gabriel’s farcical red card against Chelsea on Saturday, we all thought they would do so because he had been provoked and not really violent at all.
But, as more and more evidence came out, it seems that not only did Gabriel offer the softest of boots in Costa’s direction, he DIDN’T EVEN TOUCH HIM!
Hence why the FA surprised us all by overturning the card.
Even the Mirror, who love a bit of a drama, said “It is almost unheard of for the FA to overturn a three game ban but Arsenal found some TV footage which proved Gabriel’s kick made no contact with Costa whatsoever,” though they went back to their usual nonsense by calling it an ‘incredible outcome will infuriate Chelsea’
Not overly sure what is so ‘incredible’ about a player being un-banned for not actually doing anything, but there you go. Just shows the standards the FA have set until now.
Of course, it’s no surprise that Costa reacted the way he did – this is the man who had, after all, screamed for a yellow card when Francis Coquelin hadn’t even touched him before trying to manually rearrange Laurent Koscielny’s features. When that didn’t work, he then chest-bumped the Arsenal man to the ground and then looked at the referee in a manner that bellowed ‘did you see what he just did there’.
No, it’s a surprise to no-one.
Nor are the stats doing the rounds that allegedly show that Alexis Sanchez is a ‘dirtier‘ player than Costa. This conclusion is based on the fact that the Chilean has had one more foul given against him than the Chelsea cheat, but given that Costa ended the game against Arsenal without one single foul being called in Arsenal’s favour, stats like that can do one.
Not only did Mike Dean get all his decisions wrong on the day, he also imagined an event that didn’t even happen.
Repeatedly proven not fit for purpose, he still gets handed a Premier League game this weekend.
That might be the biggest farce of the lot.