Chelsea round-up: Diego Costa faces ban; Antonio Conte dispute over backroom staff; boss reacts to Man City win

Add as preferred source on Google

The Daily Mail claim that Diego Costa could face retrospective action which could see him face suspension if the FA review footage of him appearing to kick out at Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany last night. The Spaniard appeared to kick out whilst on the floor in the 70th minute, causing the Belgian to fall to the ground.

It remains to be seen if the FA will act and that could depend upon whether or not the incident was seen by referee Mike Dean, though it seems that he was aware of the incident. With several vital games coming up, the last thing that the Blues will want is to be without their star striker.

That would be a massive blow for manager Antonio Conte, who the Times report is locked in a battle with Roman Abramovich over his new assistant manager as Steve Holland prepares to leave at the end of the season to join the England set-up with Gareth Southgate full-time in the summer.

The Italian is keen to bring in a fellow Italian coach, but Abramovich wants to stick to the policy used by the club since his arrival of having an English assistant manager with experience of the Premier League and the English football system, such as Ray Wilkins and Steve Clarke previously.

For now though, Conte is happy at Stamford Bridge, and seemed to be delighted with his team’s performance as they saw off Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side as they seemed to put one hand on the Premier League trophy. Conte told the press, as quoted by the club website:

“It was a big win for us, it wasn’t easy because when you play against City it’s normal to suffer in some parts of the game, but I think we suffered as a team in the right way… It was a good win, above all because we played after a bad defeat when we didn’t deserve to lose.”

“At this time of the season the pressure is very high and to drop points is not good because you give your opponent hope. It’s a good win at a time of the season which is very important. To play against City is not easy because they are a top team. They have a great squad with great players and a great coach, the best in the world. When you face that combination it’s very tough.”

The Blues still face Manchester United in a fortnight, with an FA Cup semi-final against Tottenham and some other tough fixtures like Everton ahead, but they will now be confident of seeing out their campaign.

Featured Image: All rights reserved by ????????????? ????????????.