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Diego Costa Says He’s ‘Targeted’ by Premier League Refs and Fans
- Updated: August 16, 2016
Chelsea’s Diego Costa has a reputation for antagonizing opposing players, and he regularly toes the line between what is and isn’t accepted on the football pitch. Despite that, the Chelsea striker criticized what he believes is unfair treatment in England.
In an interview with ESPN Brasil (via Goal) on Tuesday, Costa discussed how he feels constantly under the microscope:
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.
Costa is almost certainly correct in his belief that referees pay special attention to him during matches, but he largely brings the extra scrutiny on himself. BBC Sport’s John Stanton and Ashleigh Jackson looked at the numbers in January and found the idea that Costa is a “dirty” player has some merit:
In a season and a half in England, Costa has twice been banned for incidents missed by the referee …
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