Arsenal did really well to get a draw against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. The fact that the Gunners were able to do this after going behind twice during the course of the match was impressive.
In the 26th minute, David Luiz prevented Tammy Abraham from scoring after a mistake from Shkodran Mustafi. This saw the Brazilian getting a red card and a penalty being awarded to the Blues.
But despite conceding, Arsenal kept fighting and found the resolve needed to get a point. Mikel Arteta was impressed with the way his team fought back to force a result. According to Independent, he said:
“The spirit, character, fight and leadership was there. When someone makes a mistake and someone has to take a red card for him it can happen.
“What has to happen is you have to stand up for him and every single player did that. If you put in everything, anything can happen.”
Though it wasn’t to be a win, there will be a lot of positives to take away from the game. The fact that the team didn’t give up despite being a man down will make the manager happy. Players were forced to play in unfamiliar positions and they still managed to be impressive.
The best example of this would be Granit Xhaka who moved from midfield into the center of defense. The other would be Bukayo Saka who played as a left-back though he normally plays as a left-winger. Arteta’s tactical move of not making a substitution and keeping Xhaka on the pitch proved to be a masterstroke.
It gave North London club someone who would be calm on the ball. His aerial prowess also came to the fore as he and Mustafi combined to neutralize Chelsea to a large extent.
For a long time, Arsenal have been accused of being too soft and were regarded as not being tough. Even forward Alexandre Lacazette spoke about how the team needed to be tougher. But this is the kind of result that will go a long way in setting that image right.
It is not easy to play with 10 men but the character that Arteta was talking about was key in getting the North Londoners a positive result. This should be used as the blueprint for other games where they will find the going a little tough. Arteta will be feeling more confident in his team on the basis of this display.
