“That happened in the game but he's a really nice guy. We're proud to have him, like the other players, and we're happy to win this game today.”
But this afternoon he took to Twitter to say: "Sorry for any confusion, English is not my first language & I did not mean to accuse anyone of cheating. Simply to say ....
"Diego is a player who puts pressure on his opponents & who I have huge respect for."
Costa is expected to face retrospective action for the incident.
Sorry for any confusion, English is not my first language & I did not mean to accuse anyone of cheating. Simply to say ....
Zouma- 'Everyone knows Diego, This guy likes to cheat'
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Arsene Wenger was furious afterwards, claiming Costa should have been sent off twice.
He said: "(There is a) big sense of injustice. I think Diego Costa is a red card.
"I would not like to be Mike Dean tonight. I cannot understand how he dealt with the situations.
"Costa twice should be sent off. He hits him in the face in purpose. In every game he has aggravation and he gets away with it because of the weakness of the referee. We knew before the game he is only looking at that.
"Gabriel should not have responded at all but the two sending offs for us and Costa staying on the pitch is a shame."