“Is the decision right or wrong?”
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“This was the real Chelsea, and I believe that we can show again in the future that we deserve to play for this club”, the 27-year-old said.
Diego Costa scored the only goal after Arsenal’s Per Mertesacker was sent off at the Emirates Stadium.
“I can not comment on it because at this time I didn’t know if Costa was offside or not?”
He continued: “The referee was very quick to take the red card out”. We had the chances to get a draw. To lose the game the way we did is really frustrating today and hard to accept.
“Mentally we were sound and on top”. Backtracking somewhat, the Frenchman added: “That is part of a striker’s game of course, and Costa is very good at that”. That is the game of the striker.
One of Hiddink’s best achievements since returning to Stamford Bridge has been revitalising Spanish duo Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas.
But Hiddink said: “There’s no doubt”.
Wenger hauled off Giroud in favour of centre-half Gabriel, while Costa doled out maximum punishment moments later by meeting an enticing Branislav Ivanovic cross at the near post and sweeping past Petr Cech.
The fans booed Arsene Wenger’s decision to substitute Olivier Giroud for Gabriel Paulista.
This left Theo Walcott and Joel Campbell as the Gunners’ chief attacking threats, both of whom were later withdrawn and replaced by Alexis Sanchez and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Mertesacker made the challenge but I said he got Mertesacker sent off, you cannot say it’s not true.
“When the game starts there must be a lot of rivalry, which is normal in sport, but outside that I think when people are decent you have to respect them and you have to respect their work as well”.
“We had to go for long distances and we needed pace to go from one goal to the other”.
Arsenal turned its stadium into a fortress this season, remaining unbeaten in the league since the opening day – until Sunday.
The loss continued a poor run of form for Arsene Wenger’s side, with them now having gone three games without a win in the Premier League.
Can Chelsea still make the top four?
Arsenal will switch focus to the FA Cup this weekend when they take on Burnley in the fourth round at the Emirates.
Hiddink reckons Chelsea’s players have won back the faith of the supporters after overseeing a seven-match unbeaten run.
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‘We are only three points off the lead and have Leicester and Southampton at home coming up, ‘ Cech said on arsenal.com.
