The 26-year-old pulled up when sprinting around the hour mark, before indicating that he felt something tear in his troublesome hamstring, which caused him to limp off slowly.
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He featured throughout Arsenal’s win over Dinamo Zagreb in midweek, even though the Gunners were comfortably 3-0 in front with 20 minutes to go.
“Obviously we can do it, but also it’s not going to be easy because it is a good team and it is going to be a great atmosphere over there, but I think we have the team spirit to do it”. “I would have rested him today but he declared that he had no problem”.
However, just as they had failed to protect their advantage at West Brom a week earlier, the Gunners conceded before half-time – Robbie Brady cutting inside and feeding Lewis Grabban, who gave Gabriel the slip and fired home.
Yet it is Arsenal sitting fourth in the Premier League – only two points behind front-runners Manchester City and Leicester – and Chelsea is 12 points further back in 14th place.
The England striker scored his hat-trick goal to put Spurs 5-1 up at Bournemouth after 63 minutes, yet wasn’t replaced until five minutes from time.
Santi Cazorla played the full 90 minutes of the game but is also expected to spend a spell out of the team, potentially leaving the club without 10 first-team players for the visit of Sunderland on 4 December.
Henderson, Liverpool’s captain, made his return after three months out with a broken foot as a replacement for Roberto Firmino, while Sturridge made his first appearance under Klopp following a knee problem.
“The problem in football is that most people do not see the bigger picture”. He barely managed to get any rest after that, when he was thrown into the mix of the domestic season, playing nearly every game in the Premier League and in the Champions League. “It was really hard for both teams – the wind was in the stadium more than the stands”. “It’s our job as a group now to go to Watford and perform against them”. “They are only thinking about the last result & the next game”, the fitness coach added.
“The quality of the performance was below what we can do offensively”, he said.
“My players did everything to try and interpret my defensive ideas with the ball”.
“The manager has been fine so I’ve just been working hard to get back into the team”.
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Mourinho told BT Sport after the game that “there was not an issue, not at all” with Costa.
