We need to keep our heads up and move onto the next game.
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As a team, they have simply gone back to basics, albeit with rather more success than the Chelsea-supporting Prime Minister who first coined that particular phrase.
Mesut Ozil’s 100th game for the north London based club ended in a disappointing defeat.
Costa was once again at the centre of proceedings having been involved in a controversial incident in the reverse fixture last September, when Gabriel was sent off for reacting to the his provocative style. Per Mertesacker’s sending off might ultimately have been the catalyst for Chelsea’s victory but the statistics underlined how the foundation was laid in central midfield and how Fabregas so comfortably outmanoeuvred his old team-mate Mathieu Flamini.
Costa would soon be withdrawn as Guus Hiddink took the tiring protagonist out of the firing line and replaced him with Loic Remy at the midway point of the half. It was Swansea’s first win at Everton and lifted them four points above the Premier League’s bottom three places.
Nevertheless, the defeat leaves Arsenal in third place with Leicester City top and three points clear of both the Gunners and Manchester City with 23 games played in the campaign as Chelsea made it nine games unbeaten against their London rivals. In the first game he got Gabriel sent off and today he got Mertesacker sent off. It’s a tackle, regular or not.
Mertesacker was shown a straight red card for felling Costa after he had latched onto a through-ball from Willian. Turning at the pace of an oil tanker, Mertesacker could only stretch out a leg to fell Costa and was sent off by referee Mark Clattenburg.
Alexis Sanchez was only deemed fit enough for the bench, as was Eden Hazard for Chelsea, but Costa returned to spearhead a Blues team that began on the front foot.
The Chelsea striker immediately made his side’s numerical advantage count by converting Branislav Ivanovic’s cross with a near-post volley in the 23rd minute. “Costa got two players off in two games on our side”.
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The striker now has six goals in six games under Hiddink, who hopes he will shake off a knee problem which forced his early withdrawal at the Emirates Stadium.
