Press conference

'Martinelli, Laca and Pepe all stepped up'

Mikel Arteta says our front three stepped up at Stamford Bridge to help us handle the absence of club captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Auba is serving a three-match suspension for a red card at Crystal Palace - a ban that still has a further game to run - but we caused plenty of problems for Chelsea without him.

Gabriel Martinelli was outstanding on the left, Nicolas Pepe was quick and elusive on the right, and Alex Lacazette ran himself into the ground in the centre.

Not surprisingly, it was Gabi who got the first mention in Mikel Arteta's press conference.

"To play in this stadium the way he's done, and with 10 men, and to play against Azpilicueta who's in my opinion one of the best defenders in the league... he was going against him every single time," said our head coach.

"You need courage to do that. Then his energy... I wanted to take him off a few times because he looked knackered. He was cramping and the next minute he's sprinting 60 yards again.

"He absolutely stepped up, but not just him. I think Laca's playing at a really good level and Nico [Pepe] as well. Everybody that's coming in, they are fighting really hard in training to try to convince us to play them more. When they question some things, I tell them to speak on the pitch and this is them speaking on the pitch."

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