Diego Costa avoids punishment for Martin Skrtel incident

Diego Costa will not face any retrospective action from the Football Association for his clash with Liverpool's Martin Skrtel during Chelsea's home defeat to Liverpool on Saturday.

The Spain forward appeared to flick his boot into Skrtel's midriff as the pair tangled on the turf in the second half of the hosts' 3-1 defeat. The referee, Mark Clattenburg, was close to the incident and looking directly at the players, and deemed no offence had taken place.

The fact he effectively dealt with it at the time rules out the possibility of using video evidence to instigate retrospective action against Costa, with the FA’s disciplinary department satisfied there was no malice in the forward’s challenge. Likewise Skrtel, with whom Costa has history given their clash in last season’s Capital One Cup semi-final at the same venue, did not make anything of the incident.

The Brazilian-born forward has twice been banned retrospectively by the FA with the use of video evidence. Earlier this season he was forced to sit out three domestic games after a clash with Arsenal's Laurent Koscielny, while he received a similar sanction for stamping on Liverpool's Emre Can during that semi-final back in January.

José Mourinho should discover on Monday whether his appeal against his £50,000 fine and suspended one-match stadium ban, imposed after he suggested referees were “afraid” of awarding decisions in his side’s favour after the defeat to Southampton on 3 October, has been successful.

(Guardian service)