Arsenal's Gabriel gets one-match ban, fine after clash with Diego Costa
Arsenal defender Gabriel has been handed a one-match ban by the Football Association after accepting a charge of improper conduct.
The 24-year-old made headlines last weekend after clashing with Diego Costa and picking up a red card for kicking out at the Chelsea forward in the Gunners' ill-tempered 2-0 defeat. The FA announced on Tuesday it had accepted Arsenal's challenge to referee Mike Dean's decision and withdrawn the three-match suspension, but the Brazilian defender has not escaped all punishment.
Gabriel has accepted a charge of improper conduct following the fall-out from his clash with Costa and will serve a one-match ban at Leicester this weekend. The separate charge relates to his conduct after being shown the red card by referee Dean.
"Following an Independent Regulatory Commission hearing, Arsenal defender Gabriel will serve a one-match suspension with immediate effect after he admitted an FA charge of improper conduct," a statement from the FA read. "The charge relates to Gabriel's behaviour following his dismissal in or around the 45th minute of the game against Chelsea on Saturday [19 September 2015].
"The player, who requested a personal hearing, was also fined $15,000 and warned as to his future conduct. The news is a blow to Arsenal ahead of the trip to in-form Leicester, but one manager Arsene Wenger admitted at the prematch press conference he expected."
"He was sorry for what happened and very disappointed, but he is a fighter and his attitude in training the whole week was completely focused and motivated," the Gunners boss said. "If there is no punishment we are a bit lucky, if there is a punishment I have to take it."
However, the ban retrospectively handed down to Costa has not gone down so well with Wenger's Chelsea counterpart Jose Mourinho. The Spain international was given a three-match ban for violent conduct and Mourinho appeared to turn his anger on the Arsenal boss.
"I don't want to touch the theme and everything that surrounds this situation because I want to be on the bench," he said on Friday. "I don't comment and I tell you why: some managers can speak about the referee before the game and after the game and some others cannot. I am in the list of the ones that cannot. An imaginary list, but clearly."
Mourinho repeatedly declined to name the individual he believes to be the exception - "just one out of 20," he added -- but appeared to be referring to Wenger, who pushed him in the Stamford Bridge technical area in October 2014.
"You know," he said. "He can speak about the referees before the game, can speak about the referees after the game, can push people in the technical area, can cry in the morning, can cry in the afternoon, nothing happens. Can be not achieved, keep the job, still the king. It's a privilege."
Chelsea are awaiting the reasoned decision from the FA on Costa's suspension.
