Arsenal: Diego Costa Would Have Been Train Wreck For Wenger
Arsene Wenger has a list of people he wishes he would have brought to Arsenal, but Diego Costa should be nowhere near that list. Yet he is.
Arsenal‘s ‘could have been’ starting XI is populated by the likes of N’Golo Kante, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Gerard Pique, Didier Drogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. It literally is like every day that Wenger admits another player he could have had.
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Ir’s happened again, with someone that you wouldn’t exactly expect to be on Wenger’s list. That man is none other than Diego Costa, the mauling Spaniard.
Our history with Costa is disgusting enough. Last season he got Gabriel and Per Mertesacker sent off in two separate games.
The first was after attempting to rip off Laurent Koscielny’s face. Gabriel, who comes from a much tougher part of Brazil than Costa, stood up to the forward and after more of Costa’s antics, Gabriel was sent off. Although it was later rescinded and handed to Costa instead, the damage was done.
While the second instance was largely Mertesacker’s fault for a horrifically poor tackle, Costa still felt no contact and merely flopped because he knew what it would lead to.
Even in Arsenal’s most recent, comprehensive win over Chelsea, Costa could be sign whining and complaining. I’m not just saying that because I don’t like him. That’s what he does. That is what he is all about.
He is an instigator. He is a dirty player, by his team mates’ own admissions. No one has ever stood up and said ‘that Diego Costa, he’s a straight shooter’. It’s always been his style, even back at Atletico Madrid. That isn’t really something you can grill out of someone.
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Which makes me think that Wenger should by no means regret missing out on Costa. He actually did pretty well for himself, getting Giroud instead. The big Frenchman contributes to goals just as often as the Spaniard does. However, with Giroud, you get a fraction of the disciplinary issues and none of the general poor attitude.
Plus, while Giroud is not the most consistent scorer in the world, he always ends up with about the same number of goals across all competitions. Costa had a great inaugural year. Then he had a poor year. Now he’s on his third year.
At least with Giroud, we know what we are getting. Maybe not this year, as he looks to be fighting an uphill battle to get into the starting XI, but Giroud has uses outside of scoring goals.
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Costa would not have fit in with the current set-up. I am 100% confident of that claim. There’s a difference between fire like Francis Coquelin has, and the sniveling fire that Costa has. No doubt he’s a fierce competitor, but he’s a dirty player to go along with it.
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