Arsene wenger shrugs off claim jose mourinho wanted to ‘break his face’

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says Chelsea striker Diego Costa is even more risky this season – after managing to “clean up his act”. “I think we’ve had some good speed in our game, [Granit] Xhaka has done well, he’s been playing so I’m looking forward to it”, he added. He?s a very strong player.

Antonio Conte makes no other changes to the side that were defeated 2-1 by Liverpool at Stamford Bridge eight days ago, with Diego Costa continuing to lead the line with support from Fabregas, Willian, Nemanja Matic and Eden Hazard.

Arsenal have been atrocious against Chelsea since the Roman Abramovich takeover and I fancy the visitors to take a point from this game.

The Gunners, without a championship title since 2004, finished a distant second last season but have won their last three league games following a slow start to the current campaign. “I like him, as a quality striker”. “And that makes him more risky”.

“You want full commitment from every single player”.

The two meetings between the sides last season saw the Gunners pick up three sendings off, two of them involving Costa, and Wenger has pleaded with his team to avoid making their own lives any more hard that necessary at the Emirates on Saturday evening.

Explosive claims in a new biography about Mourinho have emerged this week, with the former Chelsea boss alleged to have said of Wenger: “I will find him one day outside a football pitch and I will break his face”. “But commitment is different from these kind of over-reactions”.

“He is a fighter and you respect that”. “For me it was always just a big game and an important game and the personal rivalry that you suggest existed stronger before was never, in my head, a concern”, said Wenger.

“I can not put it on Costa the fact that we got caught past year [at the Emirates]”.

Wenger admits he has also discussed discipline with his players following their recent run of cards against Chelsea.

‘Of course, for the result tomorrow, it will be important the way we play football and the way we behave.