Arsène Wenger has suggested that Diego Costa would be a better player if he cut out the provocative side to his game while the Arsenal manager also revealed that he would have pushed to sign the Chelsea striker in 2014 if he had known that Atlético Madrid were prepared to sell him.
Costa, who faces Arsenal in Saturday’s 5.30pm kick-off at the Emirates Stadium, has been a thorn in the side of the north London club since his £32m move from Atlético to Stamford Bridge, facing them on three occasions and winning each time. He scored the second goal in Chelsea’s 2-0 home victory over them in 2014-15 while he was on target in his team’s 1-0 win at the Emirates last season.
Earlier in that game, he had burst on to Cesc Fàbregas’s pass to outstrip Per Mertesacker, who could only bring him down for a last-man-foul red card. There had been controversy in the meeting at Stamford Bridge at the beginning of last season, when Gabriel Paulista was needled by Costa, flicked a boot at him and was sent off. The card was later rescinded. Arsenal would finish with nine men, after Santi Cazorla’s dismissal. Chelsea won 2-0.
“I like Costa as a player,” Wenger said. “I like the qualities of the player. All the rest around is not needed. He’s a very strong player. He looks, since the start of the season, to have cleaned up his act, that he behaves more focused on the game. And that makes him more dangerous.”
Wenger was asked whether Costa would be diminished as a player without his nastiness. “No, I don’t think so,” he replied. “You want full commitment from every single player. But commitment is different from these kind of over-reactions. He is a fighter and you respect that. The rest is down to the referees to get the game and the rules respected.
“He is similar to [Didier] Drogba because he’s a top-quality player. I cannot put it on Costa the fact that we got caught last year [at the Emirates]. It was more the tandem – Fàbregas, Costa – which was very dangerous for us. Fàbregas found him quickly with his runs. In the first incident [last season, at Stamford Bridge], we were a bit guilty of reacting [to provocation]. But in the second, we were caught tactically. Mertesacker had only the opportunity to try to tackle. He got rightly sent off.”
Wenger has been in the market for a new centre-forward over the past few summers and said that Costa was on his radar. “I never thought he would leave Atlético Madrid at the time, I was surprised,” Wenger said. “Would I have made a harder play for him had I known? Yes. I like him, as a quality striker.”
Costa might not seem like the prototype Wenger character but it might be remembered that he tried, without success, to sign Luis Suárez from Liverpool in 2013. “It’s difficult for me to comment on Costa’s character because I don’t know him at all,” Wenger said. “He is a good football player. That’s what you want. I just say that he is a quality player. I want my players to play with their own personalities. You are only good if you play as who you are.”
It was notable that Wenger referenced the contribution of his former player, Fàbregas, to Costa’s winner at the Emirates last season. Fàbregas also had an assist in his team’s 2-0 win in the Stamford Bridge game while he set up Costa’s goal against Arsenal two seasons ago. Fàbregas has been out of favour under Antonio Conte this campaign but he is expected to make his first Premier League start under the Italian at the Emirates.
Wenger said that he did not want to comment on Fàbregas’s situation but he did spell out the importance of keeping cool against Costa. “We have to be completely cold-blooded, just focus on the game and not respond,” Wenger said. “We have talked about discipline because in the last two games against Chelsea, we couldn’t play 11 against 11. Discipline and results are strongly linked.”