Hiddink warns Chelsea rivals that Costa is hitting top form

Chelsea striker Diego Costa scored the victor in the first half as Arsenal, reduced to 10 men after Per Mertasacker’s red card, struggled at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger again bemoaned the influence of Costa, who antagonised the Gunners last September when Gabriel saw red.

However, after Mertesacker’s dismissal, Arsenal were second best and Costa rubbed salt into their wounds by scoring the only goal of the game. I don’t know. It is a fact, without accusing him of anything.

“That’s because there’s absolutely nothing wrong with him”. Diego Costa scored the decisive goal just a minute after the tactical move from the hosts.

He said: “Personally I think the referee should have sent him [Costa] off for diving”.

He added: “I thought I could take it with one touch but it was going very quickly so it was hard”.

For Bellerin though, the focus is still winning the Premier League and with 15 games to go he’s taking the matches on a week-by-week basis.

Had the Gunners beaten their London rivals, they would have been back on top of the Premier League table.

“In recent games we lost we had really hard decisions against us, against Southampton and (against Chelsea)”.

Mertesacker made the challenge but I said he got Mertesacker sent off, you cannot say it’s not true. Those are only facts.

“I would have to watch it again. Of course we had a mountain to climb with 10 men, but even there I believe that there was enough room there to come out with at least a 1-1”. “Sometimes when you lose you can still say “well done” to the players, so we come out of this game with more belief in ourselves”. “It was obvious I think”.

Chelsea interim manager Guus Hiddink said that Clattenburg had been correct to dismiss the German defender. “It is a gap and it is hard to go into fourth – I’ll follow my captain”. “You could see it was a lovely through pass and Diego could run straight through to Petr Cech but was tripped”.

Per Mertesacker is shown red on Sunday night during his team’s loss to Chelsea in the Premier League.

“Look, I have not seen it again”.