Hiddink wary of top four talk at Chelsea

Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has backed Diego Costa to continue his goalscoring spree after the striker scored the victor in Sunday’s 1-0 victory over bitter rivals Arsenal.

“It’s a gap. If you see the results in the Premier League, you see how competitive all the teams are, whether you’re down at the bottom or high in the ranking”.

But Wenger said Mertesacker’s 18th- minute dismissal for a last-man foul on Costa made it impossible to compare the game with previous fixtures. “I am accusing him of nothing, but those are the facts”. “It’s just what happened”.

The defeat sees Arsenal remain third in the league, level on points with Manchester City and three behind leaders Leicester, who they face at the Emirates on February 14.

“This was the real Chelsea, and I believe that we can show again in the future that we deserve to play for this club”, Matic said.

“We were having an unbeaten run of games, but there were some draws and also some games where we had to come back”.

“We gave it everything and it was not easy against 11 men, but what can I say?”

Wenger’s decision to take off Olivier Giroud for bringing on Gabriel Paulista after Per’s sending off was another decision that swayed the game in Chelsea’ favor.

“Whether or not you can make fourth place the ambition must be there every game. I made the decision and for me it was quite normal”, Wenger told reporters. But there is a long way to go. “We knew we had to drop deeper and to use pace to get forward”.

He added that Didier Drogba will not be joining Chelsea in a coaching role after their former striker resumed pre-season training with Montreal Impact, the Canadian Major League Soccer club, on Sunday.

Since Jose Mourinho was sacked last month for turning the champs into chumps, the league campaign has been about restoring pride. “We created enough chances to win the game”.

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