Diego Costa isn't paranoid but the referee that's following him might be! The Spanish striker kicked off his season in typical Diego Costa fashion, a booking for dissent inside 20 minutes, a winning goal and the question of whether he should have been sent off before the goal but he reckons it's not his fault.
It wasn't really much of a surprise to see Chelsea's pantomime villain fall foul of the new, stricter, rules on dissent against the referee and got booked after just 19 minutes of his side's 2-1 win over West Ham on Monday. But as always it wasn't his fault but more because he's being targeted by referees and opponents.
The Brazilian born forward told ESPN Brasil that he understands the new laws and wasn't actually too annoyed with his booking on Monday night but still reckons that more is made of what he does than anyone else:
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"I am aware of [the new dissent law] now. The second time I went to talk to him, he showed me [the yellow card]. I even found it a bit weird, but then I understood. I went to apologise at half-time and that's it.
"But I'll be honest, I am targeted here, by the referees, the people... if I do something, it's totally different than if any other players do. It needs to be seen, that people targeted me.
"It's something I have to deal with and I ask God that these things don't disturb me and don't take the sequence of the games from me, which happens sometimes and gives me suspensions.
Okay so Diego might have a point about people reacting more to when he does something wrong compared to others but it's a bit boy who cried wolf. The more things you do to piss us all off the more people are going to give you shit about it!
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He'd also do well to remember that whilst referees might be supposedly targeting him and Anthony Taylor did book him the other night the man in black was also very lenient in not sending Costa off for his foul on Hammers' keeper Adrian in the second half.
(Via ESPN Brasil)
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Chelsea, Football, Diego Costa