Diego Costa To Be Banned By The FA?

Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has played down Diego Costa’s kick on Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday.

Costa, 28, kicked out at Kompany in the second half of Chelsea’s 2-1 win over City but did not receive a card from referee Mike Dean.

A source has, however, told Liam Twomey that the Spain international, who has not been sent off this season, will not face retrospective action from the Football Association as Dean saw the incident at the time.

Chelsea manager Antonio Conte said: “During the game it’s very difficult.

“Yes, you see this kind of contact, but it’s impossible to tell, to judge this kind of contact. Against Crystal Palace I told you I didn’t see a clear handball and penalty for us, and also a red card, because it’s very difficult to see these type of situations during the game.”

Former Premier League referee Howard Webb said of the incident on BT Sport: “If there was a foul before, and this happens afterwards, then maybe the FA might want to look at it as an act of violent conduct.

“But because this is the foul that Mike Dean penalises, then he has seen it, made a judgement on it and the FA don’t review situations where the referee has seen it.

“Is it violent conduct? It’s a subjective call but he puts his foot and doesn’t really follow through. I think it is worthy of a yellow card but probably just short of violent conduct.”

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola added: “I didn’t see. Normally this kind of situation the referee analyses. We created enough chances, more than them, to win the game. Of course the last five or 10 minutes the game was more open, but we pressed really well and won the ball many times. But they scored and won.

“We were the better team absolutely, but they got six points against us, and we got zero. I was happier with the way we played compared to Arsenal [on Sunday], and we got a point less.”

Meanwhile, Chelsea centre-back David Luiz has joked that Eden Hazard is “ugly” as well as being “fantastic” after the playmaker moved onto 11 Premier League goals for the season after his brace against City.

When asked about the “fantastic” Eden Hazard, Chelsea defender jokingly tells SFR Sport: “He’s ugly too. No, he’s fantastic, he’s a great player. I’m very happy for him because he didn’t have a good year last year. This year he’s back to his best football. Everyone can see he’s a different player.”

When asked whether his teammate had been “resurrected” after a poor 2015-16 campaign, Luiz replied: “No, he wasn’t dead last year He didn’t play all that well, but he didn’t die.”