Diego Costa speaks out over treatment - We have to be honest he WAS lucky to stay on the pitch against West Ham.

Diego Costa has been the subject of debate in recent days after scoring the winner against West Ham on Monday night with many people of the opinion that he deserved to be sent off. The player himself feels he is being victimised.

We all all aware of the new ruling about back to Referees. If you do it, you'll get booked and that's what happened to Costa in the game the other day. His challenge on the Goalkeeper was been put under intense scrutiny of late with many people of the opinion that it should have been at least a yellow card which would have been his second and subsequently a red. However, people seemed to miss the fact that he went to the crowd to celebrate with the Supporters after he scored which is another yellow card - so to say he was lucky is an understatement.

So to Costa himself speaking after the game to ESPN Brazil, was asked of the new ruling and stated he feels that he is being unfairly treated. He said:

"I am aware of it now. The second time I went to talk to him, he showed me [the yellow card]. I even found it a bit weird, but then I understood. I went to apologise at half-time and that’s it."

But I’ll be honest, I am targeted here, by the referees, the people… if I do something, it’s totally different than if any other players do. It needs to be seen, that people targeted me.

It’s something I have to deal with and I ask god that these things don’t disturb me and don’t take the sequence of the games from me, which happens sometimes and gives me suspensions.”

If we are honest, his playing style is always going to put him on the edge with Referee's but none of us want him to change. He should have been aware of the rule change and can have no argument about his first yellow card in addition to what happened in the other two incidents that happened afterwards.

It will be interesting to see how this season plays out for Costa this season playing under Antonio Conte and whether or not he can have the same influence on him as it appeared that Guus Hiddink had when he came in.

Costa had been struggling for goals, had a few bust-ups and found himself out of position before the Dutchman turned up for his second spell as Manager. Shortly after Hiddink arrived, Costa seemed to calm down, stick to the centre of the pitch for the most part and started scoring goals again and has taken that form into the new season by scoring in the opening game on Monday.

It's hard to shake off an impression or an opinion people have formed of you based on major issues in games that have made headlines in the past two seasons. As long as he keeps his head down and just concentrates on his game, Costa can be as good or even better as he was in his first season here.

What do you people think of Costa and the fact that he feels victimised?