Diego Costa: Chelsea star claims he is a ‘target’ for referees in interview with Spanish radio station
Striker also said he refuses to talk about match officials in England because he could get a five-game-ban
DIEGO COSTA claims he is treated differently to other players by referees in the Premier League.
The Chelsea bad boy missed Boxing Day through suspension and has opened up about his disciplinary problems in an interview with Spanish radio station Onda Cero.
When he was asked about comments the likes of Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho have made about Premier League refs, Costa said: "I'm not going to talk about English referees because I could get a suspension for four or five games if I did that."
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But the Premier League's top scorer added that at times he felt victimised by match officials in England's top flight.
He commented: "I'll be honest, I'm a target here. Be it for referees or for fans.
"If I do something it's very different to the other players.
"It's something that I have to deal with and I pray to God that these things don't distract me and don't interrupt my sequence of games, which happens sometimes and gets me suspended."
The Premier League has seen some bizarre refereeing decisions over the Christmas period with Mike Dean the centre of attention.
During the Merseyside derby he failed to send off Ross Barkley for a horror tackle on Jordan Henderson, which the Everton star himself apologised for.
Just over a week later, he caused controversy at Southampton by sending off Nathan Redmond and awarding a penalty to Tottenham for a challenge many felt took place outside the box.
And he provoked fury at West Ham when he handed a red card to Sofiane Feghouli for a challenge with Man United's Phil Jones that looked 50/50. The red card was later rescinded.
Dean was also accused of threatening to send off Pedro Obiang for looking at him during the game.
But amid a refereeing storm, Costa has proved a surprisingly calm head.
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After earning four yellow cards in his first six games of the season, he went three months without seeing another card until his booking at Crystal Palace a week before Christmas.
Although during Chelsea's 2-0 defeat at Tottenham last night, the hot-headed Spaniard focused his anger on a teammate.
Costa and Pedro were seen arguing for almost a minute after the winger failed to run onto his through ball.