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Won't Cost us

Arsene Wenger: Diego Costa cannot give Arsenal any more regrets, we must be completely cold-blooded against him

Frenchman was quiet on Jose Mourinho fight claims but instead targeted Blues' combative Spanish striker

ARSENE WENGER dismissed Jose Mourinho's "break his face" threat - and instead targeted the man who was once his first-choice bully.

Arsenal have gone down to ten men in their past two Chelsea clashes with Diego Costa at the heart of both red cards.

 Diego Costa clashes with Gabriel as the latter is sent off for Arsenal
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Diego Costa clashes with Gabriel as the latter is sent off for ArsenalCredit: PA:Press Association
 Per Mertesacker is shown a red card for his foul on Diego Costa in January
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Per Mertesacker is shown a red card for his foul on Diego Costa in JanuaryCredit: AP:Associated Press

And now Wenger, who has also failed to see his side score in the past two meetings, does not want to again be left with regrets over handling the combative striker.

Talking about dealing with Costa, Wenger said: "We need to be completely cold-blooded and just focused on our game and not respond to him.

"You need to be committed and respect the rules of the game by not responding.

"I believe last year we were a bit unlucky at Chelsea to be down to ten men because he was suspended after.

 Combative Diego Costa thrives on winding up opponents
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Combative Diego Costa thrives on winding up opponentsCredit: Getty Images
 Arsene Wenger does not want Diego Costa to cause Arsenal any more regrets
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Arsene Wenger does not want Diego Costa to cause Arsenal any more regretsCredit: Getty Images

"In the second game we deserved the red card, we were caught on a quality run by him."

Arsenal centre-back Per Mertesacker saw red after a foul on Costa when the sides last played in January.

Before that Gabriel got a second yellow for clashing with the former Atletico Madrid hitman - who himself was handed a retrospective ban.

And Wenger warned his players that they can forget about a result unless they behave.

He added: "The last two games against Chelsea we have played with ten men. It's important the way we play football and how we behave.

"Discipline and results are strongly linked.

"The regrets we have in the last two games is that we couldn't play 11 vs 11."

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