It was a shame we couldn't end our winless record at Stamford Bridge, but a much-improved performance at least saw us take a share of the spoils in a goalless draw against champions Chelsea.
Arsenal striker Alexandre Lacazette and Chelsea's Pedro wasted the best chances of the match before Shkodran Mustafi saw his headed goal ruled out for offside. The hosts were reduced to 10-men following the late dismissal of David Luiz as both teams held out for a draw.
After the 4-0 defeat at Liverpool in their last away league game it was important to put things right and to prove we can match the bigger sides rather than just crumbling under pressure. Although it is disappointing that we couldn't take our chances and win, it was a hard-fought draw and our defence was vastly improved to keep Chelsea at bay.
Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech had to be alert to keep out early efforts from Pedro and Cesc Fabregas before the visitors began to grow into the game.
The Gunners had a great chance to break the deadlock after 16 minutes, but Danny Welbeck's header sailed just wide before Lacazette saw his strike well saved by Thibaut Courtois soon after.
Arsenal looked a lot more confident than the fragile team that had faced Liverpool a few weeks earlier and, although I still wasn't too confident about getting a result it was at least giving me hope.
Chelsea really should have opened the scoring after 21 minutes when Pedro was put clear on goal with only the goalkeeper to beat following Fabregas' pass. But the Spanish forward took his time before getting a shot away, which Cech did well to block. It was a decent save from the goalkeeper, but the Chelsea man should have done far better with the opportunity and it was a big let off for Arsenal.
Granit Xhaka tried his luck from outside the box, but his powerful strike went just wide before Arsenal missed arguably their best chance of the match four minutes before the break. Man of the match Aaron Ramsey got the better of the defence to get through on goal and his shot beat Courtois and hit a post. Lacazette looked in a decent position to have buried the rebound, but he blazed his effort over the crossbar.
Luiz picked up his first booking of the match when he attempted an overhead kick but connected with Laurent Koscielny instead of the ball.
Alexis Sanchez came off the bench with 24 minutes remaining and, although he didn't do too much on the day I was surprised he hadn't started the match.
Welbeck was forced off with a groin injury after 71 minutes with Olivier Giroud coming on in his place to add a big airiel threat in attack. But it was in fact the head of his team-mate Mustafi that for a second looked like it could have won Arsenal the match. The German defender powered home a header 15 minutes from time, but the goal was ruled out for offside and in truth it looked like the correct decision from the officials.
Chelsea substitute Eden Hazard tried to make his mark on the game, but his curling strike was well saved by Cech. The visitors had to play the final three minutes of normal time with 10 men after Luiz was shown a red card following a clumsy challenge on Sead Kolasinac. It was very careless and could have given Arsenal a big advantage, but unfortunately there wasn't really much time left for it to have too much affect on the game.
OPPOSITION VIEW
Chelsea fan Paul Gedeon believes a draw was a "fair result", but has warned his side must be careful not to lose any more ground if they are to compete for the title this season.
"Over 90 minutes a draw was a fair result despite Arsenal having one or two more chances," said Gedeon. "The Gunners looked up for this game and went away from their expansive football to pick up a more compact approach.
"Chelsea looked far from their best. The return of Cahill sounded promising but he looked far from his best. Fabregas and Kante were shut down quickly and couldn't get their mojo together.
"Arsenal managed to close down the front three well with a press and they had no rhythm. If Pedro scores in the first half it could have been different. In my opinion Chelsea were not expecting this Arsenal approach which is why they were nullified really well.
"The David Luiz challenge was reckless and once he saw red, the best Chelsea could hope for was a draw. All in all a fair result, Arsenal came with one job and done it well.
"Chelsea now must take the point and move on. Still very early in the season and we only sit three points behind both Manchester clubs. We must not lose any more ground or a title challenge can be a tough ask."
MY FINAL THOUGHTS
In many ways I am happy with the draw at Chelsea, but due to already having dropped points against Liverpool and Stoke we could have done without dropping another two so it was hard to be 100% satisfied.
With two home games coming up next we need to ensure we take advantage and get decent results, but we need to do better at taking our chances when it counts. I don't feel we are quite equipped to sustain a serious title challenge, but if we are to have any hope at all we need to put in more composed performances as we did at Chelsea, but with better finishing, and also ensure we never repeat games like at Liverpool.
The visit of Doncaster in the Carabao Cup is likely to see a lot of rotation and chances given to youngsters, but I'm still expecting us to get a positive result.
We then return to league action with a home game against West Brom. I am taking nothing for granted as the Baggies have proved to be a banana skin for us in the past, but if we want this to be a season to remember nothing other than three points will do from this one.
COME ON YOU GUNNERS
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