Suarez worse than Costa, says Pele

Pele has taken the time to defend Chelsea striker Diego Costa in the wake of recent criticism and feels the Spain international's behaviour against Arsenal was nowhere near as bad as when Luis Suarez bit an opponent.

Costa made the headlines for all the wrong reasons against Arsenal as he was involved in a number of incidents, eventually resulting in a three-game ban for violent conduct as the Football Association took retrospective action.

Nevertheless, Pele has downplayed Saturday's events, stressing that similar incidents happened on a regular basis in his playing days.

"Listen, this to me was so common," Pele told AFP.

"I suffered all my life with good marking.

"Diego Costa is a very good player, everybody knows. This was one moment.

"The striker who bit someone, Luis Suarez, was worse than this."

Suarez has been punished for biting an opponent on three occasions.

He first received a ban for sinking his teeth into PSV midfielder Otman Bakkal when at Ajax, then bit Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic while under contract with Liverpool, before repeating the feat at the 2014 World Cup, with Italy's Giorgio Chiellini his victim.