Arsène Wenger was, rightly, feeling hard done by on Saturday as Arsenal lost at Stamford Bridge once again.

A finely poised game against the champions turned when the Gunners had Gabriel sent off and had to play the entire second half with 10 men. Matters went from bad to worse when Santi Cazorla was also sent off late on, so Arsenal were left with nine.

Gabriel had been wound up by Diego Costa but, while he conceded his defender shouldn’t have reacted as he did, Wenger was perplexed that the striker managed to stay on the pitch.

“I invite Mike Dean to invite to watch well what Diego Costa did before (Gabriel) got sent off,” the Arsenal boss said in his interview with the BBC after the match. “I think it’s a disgrace he gets away with that and I’m very disappointed by Mike Dean’s performance on that.

“On top of that we get a player sent off.”

While the Arsenal boss was happy to admit that Gabriel had done wrong, he was understandably upset by the influence Diego Costa had on the game.

“I agree he should not have responded at all and he’s guilty as well, we don’t want that, but Diego Costa gets away with a yellow. It’s disgusting.

“Look well at what happened with Koscielny before. He hits him in the face, he hits him in the chest. He hits him twice in the face, it’s just not acceptable. But he gets away with it because he plays with the naivety of the referee and I find that absolutely unacceptable”