Former Arsenal chairman blasts “serial cheat” Diego Costa

Chelsea’s Diego Costa celebrates after scoring the first goal during their match against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.

The Gunners suffered a second league defeat to the struggling Blues this season after Diego Costa scored the only goal of the game after 23 minutes.

The last time the sides met in September, Costa was also heavily involved as Arsenal lost 2-0 and had two players sent off.

“He is a serial cheat and he gets away with it”, said Hill-Wood. I don’t know. But these are the facts, without accusing him of anything.

“That’s because there’s absolutely nothing wrong with him”.

“I can’t influence the decision of the referee”.

Victory at the Emirates means Chelsea have now gone nine league matches without being beaten by their London rivals.

Chelsea have climbed to 13th in the table in recent weeks on the back of the Premier League’s longest current unbeaten run and midfielder Nemanja Matic is confident they can maintain that upward turn over the next few months.

Arsenal dropped from first to third place this weekend, behind leader Leicester and Manchester City, although there are 45 points still to play for. “I’m not convinced”, said Wenger. “Never mind that there wasn’t contact… he looked to see where his mate [Laurent] Koscielny was with only one thing on his mind – am I staying on when I bring this fella down? We are still a big team and we can win something”.

Wenger, 66, was disappointed with the result, which extends their winless run against the Premier League champions to six games, and reckons his side deserved at least a point for their efforts.

Chelsea interim boss Guus Hiddink said it was “obvious” and pointed to the decision to deny Cesc Fabregas a penalty when Koscielny body-checked the playmaker.

“I thought Arsene was very restrained because he must have been furious”.

Hiddink said: “With that gap, it’s hard to go into fourth position”.

On the sending off, Wenger believes Mark Clattenburg was quick to brandish his red card.