Jose
Mourinho believes Chelsea striker Diego Costa has earned an unwarranted
reputation as a badly-behaved player.
Costa has been booked seven times in his first 13 Premier League
appearances, level with Arsenal's Calum Chambers and Sunderland's Lee
Cattermole for the league-high, although the Spaniard's yellow cards have
come in fewer games.
The latest came for a dive in Saturday's 2-0 win against Hull - a decision
replays showed to be wrong and underlines to Mourinho the rough justice his
frontman is getting.
"I can't believe it," the Chelsea boss said. "I can't believe it. I remember
two that are understandable and fair.
"One was against Newcastle because he complained with the referee with arms
in the air in body language that was not accepted normally by the referees
and [Martin] Atkinson gave him the yellow card.
"And the other one in Liverpool, when there was a really aggressive duel
with [Martin] Skrtel - you know, fighting in a yellow card way.
"All the others, the first one at Burnley is a penalty and a red card for
the keeper and he gets a yellow card.
"Other times, it is not a simulation and they give him a yellow card. Other
times he touches one guy and it is a yellow card.
"Everything he does is a yellow card, so he does nothing for a red card, he
does nothing, really.
"For me, the normal situation would be now to be on the second, maximum
third yellow card. But seven yellow cards - it looks like everybody comes
ready for him, which I don't understand."
Mourinho feels Costa's reputation was earned during his time at Atletico
Madrid and feels he has done 'very well' working on his behaviour since
arriving at Stamford Bridge.
"I think when he was (at) Atletico he created a certain image and people
don't believe that he can change," he added.
"People don't believe the way we teach him what England is - the mentality,
what people accept, what people don't accept, what is a red card.
"People don't understand that he is intelligent enough to understand it and
to change - because he changed."
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