Let us be blunt about this. That Diego Costa came out after half-time was nothing short of astonishing given what had gone before.
He spoiled for a fight from the first whistle. Arguing with anybody close, diving, antagonising this fierce Stoke crowd.
Booked inside 16 minutes for - among other things - a barrage of abuse hurled in Anthony Taylor’s direction, Chelsea’s snarling top scorer tread a tightrope thereafter.
Costa represented a distraction from a pulsating opening half, with Stoke rightly reverting back to the sort of football which unsettled so many bigger clubs all those years ago.