Chelsea’s Diego Costa celebrates after scoring the first goal during their match against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.
Advertisement
Costa’s first major contribution was to draw the tackle from Per Mertesacker that earned the rangy German defender a straight red card, after being deemed to be last man.
“He is a serial cheat and he gets away with it”, said Hill-Wood. “Fact is a fact – I do not accuse him of anything, it is just what happened”.
“That’s because there’s absolutely nothing wrong with him. I think we have shown we are a team who are ready to fight”.
“In this moment I am very happy”.
The result meant that Arsenal have now gone nine Premier League games without beating Chelsea and have failed to score in the past six League meetings between the two clubs, stretching over 572 minutes.
Chelsea are 14 points behind fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur in 13th position with 15 Premier League matches remaining, but the Blues skipper insists that they are capable of storming up the table during the rest of the season. “We should come out of the game with at least a 1-1 even down to 10 men”, Wenger said. “You always follow the captain”, Hiddink said in response.
“I made the decision and for me it was quite a normal decision because we… needed pace to go from one goal to the other”.
“He is important, because he’s focusing on his first job”, said Hiddink.
Nemanja Matic believes Chelsea showed their true colours during Sunday’s 1-0 win against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, and backed them to end the season strongly.
“You could see it as a handsome through pass from Willian to Diego”.
He continued: “The referee was very quick to take the red card out”.
“Look, I have not seen it again”.
Costa had been the catalyst behind Gabriel’s dismissal in September when the sides met at Stamford Bridge, goading the Brazilian defender into kicking out at him as Chelsea won 2-0.
Advertisement
“If we stay unbeaten it’s a positive step but it’s a big gap”, Hiddink told Sky Sports.
