PLAY THE ADVANTAGE

Listen. Diego Costa is an ass, and he’s always going to be bad mouthing someone and starting fights. He just seems like a jerk.

But Pablo Zabaleta has been around long enough to know better.

Zabaleta was skating on thin ice, anyway. Referee Mike Dean had spent the first half of the game handing out yellow cards like it was already Halloween and the lads were trick or treating as footballers. (See screenshot, above.)

But was this enough to have Zabaleta sent off?

Unfortunately, I believe it was absolutely a yellow card and Zabaleta was unlucky that he was already on one (though, that one – frankly – was soft). But you do have to be careful and not let Costa get to you, and Zaba did neither.

What do you think?