Chelsea manager Antonio Conte lauded Diego Costa after the striker made a decisive contribution — and kept his cool — in the English Premier League leaders’ tempestuous 3-1 win at Manchester City.
Costa canceled out Gary Cahill’s own-goal and set up Willian for Chelsea’s second as Conte’s men came from behind on Saturday to record an eighth successive victory.
The combative Spain international even acted as a peacemaker during a stoppage-time melee in which City pair Sergio Aguero and Fernandinho were sent off, belying his reputation as a firebrand.
Photo: AFP
“Diego is showing he is using his passion in the right way and I’m very happy about that,” said Conte, whose team put four points between themselves and Pep Guardiola’s City.
Costa has frequently fallen foul of the Football Association since joining Chelsea from Atletico Madrid in 2014.
His form slumped last season as Chelsea’s title defense disintegrated, but he is the Premier League’s joint top-scorer with 11 goals and believes he has benefited from keeping his head.
“I want to be on the pitch and I want to be cool,” Costa said.
City deservedly went ahead on the stroke of halftime when Cahill’s near-post lunge saw him turn a Jesus Navas cross into his own net.
Costa equalized on the hour, chesting down a pass from Cesc Fabregas and slamming a low shot past Claudio Bravo, before freeing substitute Willian to run through and score Chelsea’s second.
Eden Hazard sealed the victory in the final minute after cantering onto a pass from Marcos Alonso.
An injury to Nemanja Matic saw Fabregas make his first appearance since Chelsea’s 3-0 loss at Arsenal on Sept. 24.
Chelsea missed Matic’s positional discipline as City pulled them all over the pitch, but Conte saluted Fabregas’ contribution.
“He played a good game,” the Italian said. “I know I can always count on him.”
The main talking points in an absorbing match occurred in stoppage-time when Aguero was red-carded for launching himself into an appalling knee-high challenge on David Luiz.
Guardiola, implausibly, said the foul was not intentional.
He will be without Aguero for four games, while Brazilian midfielder Fernandinho faces a three-game ban after grabbing Fabregas by the throat and shoving him over an advertising hoarding.
Guardiola said Fernandinho had been trying to “defend his teammate” and drew a confusing parallel with Nolito’s dismissal for headbutting AFC Bournemouth’s Adam Smith in September.
“It’s a pity it finished like this, but it was the way the referee decided,” said Guardiola, who tasted defeat at the Etihad Stadium for the first time. “I don’t like that. I apologize for what happened.”
City’s fans were incensed by referee Anthony Taylor, who elected not to punish Luiz for impeding Aguero when he was clean through on goal and also turned down three penalty appeals by the hosts.
“We didn’t win because we missed a lot of chances. Not for the referee,” Guardiola said. “I am so proud of my team and how we played. I came here to try to play the way we played today. We created more chances than against Burnley and Crystal Palace, when we won. In the boxes, we are not strong enough, but I have no regrets.”
Conte congratulated his players for keeping their heads.
“I’m happy because I always tell my players to be focused on the game on the pitch and always to keep calm,” Conte said. “When you play these big games it’s not easy to keep calm in every single moment, but I’m pleased because all my players tried to keep calm.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier