Diego Costa sends Gunners crashing out of Europa League

The Europa League was supposed to be Wenger’s parting gift and his men were meant to raise their game to give a fitting end to his 22-year reign.

But on the night of his 250th game in Europe with the Gunners, it was sadly, for the 68-year-old, the same old story. With the villain again being Diego Costa.

The ex-Chelsea star kept up his personal mission to make Wenger and Arsenal miserable with the only goal of the game.

The Gunners played okay, but all too often the final ball - particularly from the woeful Nacho Monreal - was awful.

When a decent one did come, they were guilty of poor control and heavy touches.

Despite having 55 per cent of possession Arsenal managed just ONE shot on target, a long-range effort from Granit Xhaka.

Just before the final effort, Wenger kicked the air with his left foot. It wasn’t meant to end like this.

Ten trophies - three league titles and seven FA Cups - is not a bad haul for 22 years but this match will not be one he remembers with any affection.

It had to be Costa who was the fairytale killer.

Playing for Chelsea, he scored three in six appearances against Arsenal and became Public Enemy No.1 as far as the north Londoners were concerned.

Infamously he was at the centre of red cards for Santi Cazorla and Gabriel when scoring the only goal of the game at The Emirates in September 2015.

The Spain international missed the 1-1 Europa League semi-final first-leg eight days ago due to a hamstring problem.

But he was back to take aim at the Gunners last night and hit the target in first-half added-time.


Costa’s night ended when his suspect hamstring looked to give way after a shot in the 81st minute, shortly after he had been booked for an altercation with Shkodran Mustafi.

He had failed to score in his previous six games.

But against the north Londoners you could see he fancied his chances of spoiling Wenger’s farewell, with the Frenchman desperate to leave the club with Champions League qualification through landing the Europa League.

Arsenal had been given a warning of how costly Costa could be to their hopes.

In the sixth minute the 29-year-old brushed aside Monreal to burst into the box on the right-hand side but he hesitated before shooting and fired wide of the near post.

The Gunners suffered a major blow when skipper Laurent Koscielny turned and then collapsed in the ninth minute after tearing his right Achilles tendon.

Depending on its severity the injury could rule him out of this summer’s World Cup.


But an bigger setback came when Antoine Greizmann, scorer of the crucial equaliser at The Emirates, spotted Costa in space and played a perfect pass to him.

The ex-Chelsea star showed all his strength to gather the ball, shake off the dozing Hector Bellerin’s attempt at a last-ditch challenge and then lash high into the net over the diving David Ospina.

Atletico boss Diego Simeone, banned after getting sent off at The Emirates, celebrated with arms aloft as he watched the game from on high.

Arsenal almost scored in the 53rd minute when Jack Wilshere’s mishit volley found Aaron Ramsey.

He looked in but once again the touch was not good enough and he could only bundle the ball wide.

Keeper Jan Oblak got down well to turn round that drive from Xhaka in the 63rd minute.

That though was as good as it got for the Gunners as they became the 12th team in a row to fail to score at Atletico’s new stadium.





Source: DailystarUk