Arsene Wenger has made it clear that he blames Diego Costa for the Arsenal defeat at Chelsea this weekend, but he also acknowledges that the Brazilian defender Gabriel was ‘unprofessional’ in the way he allowed Costa to wind him up. “I don’t understand Gabriel because he usually looks a calm boy.” Wenger said. “You have to be above that. That’s part of the game.
“To be professional, to me, is to deal with that.
“You can spit in my face and if it’s in a game then I will not respond. I do not guarantee that outside of the game!”
I personally don’t think that Gabriel looks like a calm boy! Quite the opposite, I think he looks scarey as hell! But I digress. This same report, in the Mirror, reckons that Wenger himself could face an FA charge for his comments about the referee Mike Dean after the match, labelling him ‘weak’. Le Prof again reiterated his feelings towards all the officials when he was quoted as saying: “He hits him twice in the face, gets away with it because of the naivety of the referee. It’s unacceptable.
“You have a fourth official, you have a linesman, [and] the referee and they talk all the game. They can tell him and they know Diego Costa.
“He [Costa] is not a newcomer. He was here for a year now.
“It is surprising. I tell you something, if I am a referee and I referee Diego Costa, I do not send somebody off quickly if he responds, because you know he has been well provoked.”
Wenger is right of course, Gabriel made an error when he simply fell into Costa’s trap by allowing himself to react, Costa was definitely at fault, and Wenger obviously believes that Costa was behind it all. So which of these three should I award my University of North Texas mug to this week? The first one to get five votes will see me post the trophy in the comments section….