Chelsea to assess Costa injury

Diego Costa once again proved to be Arsenal’s undoing with the Chelsea man scoring the only goal as the reigning Barclays Premier League champions beat the 10-man Gunners on Sunday afternoon.

Costa in September tussled with Laurent Koscielny and Gabriel, who was sent off, and on Sunday drew a foul from Per Mertesacker which saw the German dismissed at the Emirates Stadium in Chelsea’s 1-0 win.

Chelsea are now eight games unbeaten under Guus Hiddink, but this is clearly the most significant result of the lot and will give the players belief they can still rescue something from the campaign in the FA Cup and Champions League.

The Gunners are tied for the lead with Leicester and Manchester City is just one point behind, so they can’t settle for one point in the Derby of London. “We suffer the defeats and enjoy the victories together”.

DF Hector Bellerin, 6 – Worked really hard, defended well and tried to make things happen in the Chelsea half.

Both sides had sights of goal in the opening two minutes as Joel Campbell missed his kick from Theo Walcott’s cross before Oscar – recalled in place of Pedro – had a shot tipped behind at the near post by Petr Cech.

“If you see yesterday’s games like Norwich and Liverpool, it’s unpredictable until the dying seconds”.

Hiddink was more circumspect.

Meanwhile, Hiddink is optimistic Chelsea can maintain their impressive hold on Arsenal, despite the contrasting Premier League fortunes of the sides this season.

“When you come here, you have to take the initiative and I’m proud of the guys”.

Chelsea moved up to 13th in the league table on 28 points and are 14 points adrift of fourth placed Tottenham Hotspur.

“We can not influence the decision of the referee, Costa got two players off in two games for our side, so he is clever”. Former Chelsea keeper pulled off a crucial save of Costa late in the half as the teams went off the pitch at 1-0 during the interval.

Achieving a second successive win for the first time this season put Guidolin’s team in 15th place, and boosted their chances of avoiding relegation back to the Championship after five years. It has a big importance to us as well.