Arsenal suffered a 1-0 defeat at home to Chelsea on Sunday, with Diego Costa scoring the only goal of the game to deal a huge blow to Arsene Wenger’s title hopes.
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The game took a huge twist after just 18 minutes as Per Mertesacker received a straight red as the German international took Costa down while the Spaniard appeared set to bear down on goal.
Although the hosts would have argued that Laurent Koscielny could have made up the ground to challenge the Spaniard, Mark Clattenburg saw otherwise and dismissed the towering centre back to immediately put the home side on the back foot.
That numerical disadvantage was exploited just minutes later as Costa got on the end of a Branislav Ivanovic cross to guide an effort past Petr Cech to break the deadlock and silence the Emirates.
Things only got more frustrating for Wenger and his men as the game went on, particularly in the closing stages as they pushed forward in search of an equaliser.
Despite putting pressure on Chelsea for long periods, the Gunners were unable to find a decisive touch in the final third as they were also missing a slick of luck in several situations.
Nevertheless, the defeat leaves Arsenal in third place with Leicester City top and three points clear of both the Gunners and Manchester City with 23 games played in the campaign as Chelsea made it nine games unbeaten against their London rivals.
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