Petr Cech wants Arsenal to respond to their defeat to Chelsea

“I like to see them play, but our credit was not to have them play”, he added. Overall we come out with a lot of regret because we feel we couldn’t play with our team.

The displays of Fabregas and Costa were a highlight of Chelsea’s performance throughout to continue their improvement in form in recent weeks, although Hiddink said he did not have to spend much time encouraging the two to get better.

Costa was fouled by Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker which led to the sending off of the German as Chelsea beat the Gunners.

But the 1-0 defeat left Arsenal in third place, three points adrift of surprise leader Leicester and behind Manchester City on goal difference.

“You want to make a poll for every decision to see who does what?”

“I made the decision and, for me, it was quite a normal decision. We knew we had to drop deeper and use pace to get forward”.

“Despite the disappointing result, we should have even more belief in ourselves after the game”, Wenger said.

Chelsea are undefeated in eight since Mourinho’s departure, the first game of that sequence a defeat of Sunderland prior to Hiddink’s appointment which was saw the fans turn on the players who seven months earlier had delivered the title.

“We deserved to win, we showed our qualities and that we can play good football, and I am sure that until the end of the season we will show that we are still a big team and that we can win something”.

Captain John Terry believes a top-four place and Champions League qualification is not beyond them, but fourth-placed Tottenham are 14 points ahead with 15 games to go. “With this gap, it’s hard to go into fourth position, but when the captain is saying that, I will follow my captain”.

“I had some doubts over the Fabregas penalty, yes or no. I can understand why the referee didn’t give a penalty, fair enough”.

“Diego could run straight on Petr Cech but was tripped and it was obvious that it was a red card without any discussion, I think”.

So far in this season, Olivier Giroud has found the back of the net on 12 occasions in 17 Premier League starts, which is a considerably higher tally when compared to Joel Campbell’s 2 goals in 9 starts.

“But on Mertesacker’s red card, I haven’t looked closely but it was always [a red card] I think”.

Hiddink also revealed that Costa, withdrawn in the 68th minute, would undergo tests on a knee injury.