Arsenal: Rob Holding the deathblow on Diego Costa’s EPL career

Arsenal’s young defender Rob Holding quickly became a fan favorite, but with the great reveal of what he did to Diego Costa, it only gets better.

Arsenal handily disposed of Chelsea in the FA Cup final and it was a glorious thing. Of course, in true Gunner fashion, they had to make it much nervier than it needed to be, but still. It was a convincing win.

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Nothing was more convincing than the performance of that back line, in particular the Diego Costa routine that Rob Holding and Per Mertesacker employed.

There aren’t many things/people I just don’t like in the beautiful game. Diego Costa is one of those few people. So to see our £2m, Bolton center back put the Spaniard/Brazilian in his pocket. Well, it was something special.

But only recently has it been revealed just what exactly Holding said to Costa. We saw him make gestures pointing to his own head and it was clear what he was saying with that move – you’re crazy. Apparently though, Holding had more to say than that, and it’s glorious.

Here’s what he said (as quoted by ESPNFC):

"An expletive, then I just called him a nutter basically. Something’s not right in his head, I don’t think. I knew what he was going to play like, I knew he was going to try the mind games and try and throw me off my game, so I just didn’t rise to it and got back into position"

Now, he did go on to say that Costa was ‘alright’ but the damage has been done. Holding said that something’s not right in Costa’s head and I couldn’t be happier about that.

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And to compile on that, Costa has had a pretty rotten summer as Antonio Conte continues to nudge him out of the club. Rumors tying him to China seemed to come and go and now a return to Atletico Madrid seems to be the most likely option.

Whatever the case, Costa has no future at Stamford Bridge. Meaning the last meaningful game action he is likely to have is getting owned by Holding.

Tell me that isn’t satisfying. And while you’re telling me that, remember how much Manchester City paid for John Pebbles and calculate that he was 25 times as expensive as Holding. Meaning, quite simply, that he should at the very least be better than Holding and gloriously he is not.

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Holding may not have initiated the demise of Diego Costa, but he sure as hell made the grand finale one to remember.