Match report – Player ratings – By the numbers – Video

If there’s such a thing as a positive 0-0 draw, that was it yesterday. Arsenal went to Stamford Bridge knowing that they had to avoid defeat, and they did that, but they also showed that some of the lessons that needed to be learned after Anfield had been learned, and that was reflected in the performance.

Arsene Wenger stuck with his back three, deployed Xhaka and Ramsey in midfield again, and without an injured Mesut Ozil and an Alexis Sanchez not considered quite fit enough to start yet, asked Alex Iwobi and Danny Welbeck to support Alexandre Lacazette up front.

I thought we started a bit sloppily, if there was a nervousness about us it was understandable, but despite Chelsea having more the ball, we kept our shape and began to grow into the game. In the 15th minute we burst into life when Iwobi set Bellerin free down the right, and his cross was headed wide by Welbeck. He should have got it on target at least but it showed there was something to us from an attacking point of view.

Bellerin was involved again, this time sent in behind Alonso by a cute Ramsey pass, but Courtois was equal to Lacazette’s effort. A few minutes later, Pedro had a brilliant chance to put Chelsea ahead when Mustafi played him onside and he raced through on goal. He didn’t look 100% confident though, Koscielny got back to make a challenge and Cech stood up well to make a hugely important save.

Xhaka had a pop from distance, and as the game went on Arsenal coped better with Chelsea’s pressing, and should have gone ahead before half-time. Ramsey’s run saw him poke the ball against the post, and while it did rebound to Lacazette quickly, you’d expect a player of his finishing instincts to do better than clump the ball over the bar. In games like these those are the moments that can make the difference.

Early in the second half, we saw the first example of one of the things that pleased me most about yesterday: an awareness of how dangerous Chelsea can be on the break and a willingness to do something about it. Morata was about to burst through our defensive line, but Nacho Monreal took him down with one of those ‘Oh he ran across me, I’m so innocent!’ fouls.

The Spaniard’s shrug, as if he had no idea what he’d done, made it all the more enjoyable, and there were further examples late on which I’ll touch on in a bit. We had a goal disallowed for offside, Mustafi was certainly the wrong side when Xhaka’s well delivered free kick was taken, and the introduction of Eden Hazard made Chelsea much more threatening in the final half an hour.

At the back David Luiz was having a superb game for them, he was annoyingly good all day, and not even Alexis Sanchez – on for the fading Lacazette with about 20 minutes to go could find the spark we needed to get a goal. Danny Welbeck’s groin injury meant Olivier Giroud came on shortly afterwards, but we couldn’t really provide him with much service either.

Mohamed Elneny came on to help shore things up, and the Egyptian was second proponent of the cynical foul. He got a yellow card for his, and although it the foul took place deep in their half, it was preventative, stopping them from counter-attacking.

Luiz then saw red for a shocking challenge on Sead Kolasinac. The Bosnian is made of solid stuff but I was worried for a while that he might have sustained a serious injury such was the force of the Luiz challenge. The Brazilian have no complaints about the red card, it’s now almost a routine thing for Chelsea to end up a man light against us. Sadly there wasn’t enough time to really pile on the pressure.

Kolasinac picked up a yellow for a blatant foul on halfway, as did Bellerin for a wonderfully cynical push on Bakayoko. It was almost as if these Arsenal players had been taught, at long last, that there is such a thing as a good yellow card and when to take it.

Arsenal fouling Chelsea video compilation here

There was some late danger from them in the shape of a free kick out wide, but as we did with almost every set-piece and cross throughout the day, we dealt with it well defensively, and the game finished scoreless, but with some real positive vibes from an Arsenal point of view.

Afterwards, Arsene Wenger said:

It’s true you have to accept criticism when we deliver the kind of performance we had at Liverpool – the only way to respond is on the pitch and that’s what we did today. It was a question today what will happen, at least with the attitude, the response, the determination. It was vital for us even above the result to come out with a solid performance on that front. Overall we did exactly what I expected the team to do.

I wanted to see a performance that was at least committed and showed some acceptance that what happened at Liverpool a few weeks ago was not going to happen again. Man of the match Aaron Ramsey used the word ‘solidarity’ in his post-match interview, and I think that was apparent. The fact that he showed much more positional discipline ensured that midfield functioned – against a very good Chelsea midfield too – and there was much more focus on the collective that the individual.

You might speculate on how the absence of Alexis and Ozil had an impact on that, and it’s worth looking at, I think. It’s not to say that either or both are a problem, per se, but perhaps in certain games it’s about prioritising what’s best for the team rather than two individuals – neither of whom are, at this point, willing to commit to the club.

That’s not to dismiss them, or their quality, because we will definitely need them throughout this season, but is there anything wrong in telling them that for specific fixtures the team needs to play a different way? I don’t think so.

Picking Iwobi over Alexis raised eyebrows before the game, and given the young man’s recent struggles with form, it was a brave move by Arsene Wenger. I think it worked though, and hopefully it will help restore some confidence to the 21 year old who worked hard throughout the day. Much of his work was positional but he was solid on the ball too.

Considering much of the pre-game talk wasn’t about if Arsenal would lose but by how many, it was a very encouraging performance overall, but – and here it comes – this must become the norm. We can’t just play like this because we got a pasting in our last away game and there’s pressure to respond. We need to take this focus, discipline and solidity into all of these games, because if we do we’ve got a better chance of winning points from the big teams.

It won’t always work, of course, but it’s important to repeat what we did today in the next big away game. If that means sacrificing some individual talent and flair for the benefit of the collective, so be it. That extra quality will likely be on the bench anyway, so you have the potential to react if need be.

There will be some who will say it’s a sign of how standards have fallen that a 0-0 draw with Chelsea is viewed so positively. There’s probably something in that, but that’s our reality at the moment. After what happened at Anfield there was a genuine need to address those shortcomings, and we did just that. It was a game we could have won, as well, so let’s view it as a baby-step towards further improvement. Time will tell if it becomes that, but there were definitely things to be encouraged about.

Right, that’s that. James and I will be here this morning with an Arsecast Extra for you. If you have any questions or topics for discussion, please send to both @gunnerblog and @arseblog on Twitter with the hashtag #arsecastextra – we should have that up for you around lunchtime.

Until then.