Arsene Wenger labelled Diego Costa “clever” after the striker was involved in the incident which saw Per Mertesacker sent off during Arsenal’s 1-0 defeat to Chelsea.
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Cech concluded: “I thought for 70 minutes we were brilliant, in terms of the team effort and the organisation”.
The striker now has six goals in six games under Hiddink, who hopes he will shake off a knee problem in time for Sunday’s FA Cup fourth round clash against MK Dons.
With this result, Arsenal have now managed to come away with two losses against Chelsea in the midst of the Blues’ incredibly disappointing season.
Nemanja Matic believes football fans are finally witnessing a Chelsea side returning to form and feels the win at Arsenal shows they have their old swagger back.
Chelsea’s interim manager Guus Hiddink said that Mertesacker’s lunge had merited “a red card without any discussion”.
The match started with Chelsea controlling most of the play but without creating any substantial goal-scoring chances.
“We had some very good attacks before the red card, Willian had a couple of good opportunities”.
Arsenal remain third with 44 points after the setback, three points behind pacesetters Leicester City and behind Manchester City on goal difference. We gave it everything and it was not easy today against 11 men but what can I say?
But critics of referee Mark Clattenburg’s decision claimed there was little contact in the tackle. “It was obvious I think”.
“What we take from today is that we are disappointed, but have a lot of positives from our attitude and spirit”.
“The team were focused and resilient, fighting to the last second”. Maybe. But they don’t appear to have the steel required to see off Chelsea. “We knew we had to drop deeper and to use pace to get forward”.
Terry insisted that reaching the top four to qualify for next season’s Champions League was still not out of the question despite a 14-point gap with fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur.
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“For 60 minutes, we were the better team and showed great character, we just needed a bit of luck to find the net”.
