Costa stuns Arsenal

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 yesterday.

Having tussled with Gabriel and Laurent Koscielny in September's reverse fixture at Stamford Bridge, Costa was again the villain of the piece from an Arsenal perspective as he proved the catalyst in Chelsea's 1-0 win - a result which leaves the Gunners in third behind both Leicester and Manchester City.

The Spain striker's tangle with Gabriel in his side's 2-0 victory earlier in the campaign saw the Arsenal defender sent off and it was Per Mertesacker who saw red this time for bringing down the controversial striker on 18 minutes.

Gabriel came off the bench in place of Olivier Giroud but Costa soon had the ball in the net for the game's only goal as Chelsea moved further away from trouble at the bottom end of the table and put a dent into Arsene Wenger's title bid.

Oscar had the game's first decent chance after being gifted possession by a nervy Laurent Koscielny and his low shot earned the visitors a corner as former Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech was forced to push the ball behind.

It was Willian who was next to test Cech, collecting the ball after his initial wayward shot was blocked and sending another effort straight at his former teammate. Independent