The chaos of Diego Costa rules for Atlético Madrid in rout of Sevilla | Sid Lowe

In the blink of an eye, Costa had been and gone, a hurricane tearing though Sevilla, its impact likely to be lasting

Diego Costa shot up the left, bundled Gabriel Mercado to the floor, pushed Clement Lenglet into Éver Banega and then bulldozed into the back of the Frenchman, forearm first, sending him crashing to the ground, and tumbled on top of him with a thud. He got up, crashed into Lenglet for a third time and flew backwards, holding his face, which hadn’t been hit, went to ground again and got up again, wearing a menacing look, and paced at his “aggressor”, looking for more. He was held back by Gabi, handed a yellow card by Juan Martínez Munuera, protested “Who, me?”, begged a bit and asked why, like he didn’t know. He walked away momentarily, a “don’t care” that didn’t last long – just long enough to lure them into his trap – and he was off, hunting down Banega, who didn’t see the stampede coming.

In the blink of an eye, Costa had been and gone and so had the game, a hurricane tearing though Sevilla, its impact likely to be lasting. Through Banega and out the other side with the ball, he smashed it past Sergio Rico, spinning to the ground as he struck it, got up, ran to the stands wild-eyed and growling, skidded on his knees and roared, really roared. The pack raced over, sharing the spoils; the attack had been as ferocious as it was fast. When eventually they stood, he emerged from the middle, got up for the fourth time and, gently now, crossed himself. Then he pointed to the name on his shirt, in case anyone wondered. Diego Costa, distilled: it all happened in 96 seconds.

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They have closed on Barcelona to just seven points. Hay Liga, as they say: there is a league. And maybe there really is

Deportivo 0–0 Espanyol, Celta 2–0 Eibar, Real Madrid 4–0 Alavés, Leganés 0–0 Las Palmas, Barcelona 6–1 Girona, Villarreal 1–0 Getafe, Athletic 2–1 Málaga, Valencia 2–1 Real Sociedad, Sevilla 2–5 Atlético. Monday night: Levante v Betis.