Mikel Arteta takes heart from Arsenal escape in Chelsea battle

LONDON – Mikel Arteta insisted Arsenal deserved respect after the English Premier League leaders battled to a bruising 1-1 draw with title rivals Chelsea at the end of a gruelling week on Nov 30.

Arteta’s injury-hit side salvaged a point at Stamford Bridge thanks to Mikel Merino’s header in the 59th minute.

It took everything the Gunners had to emerge unscathed after a fired-up Chelsea side ignored Moises Caicedo’s 38th-minute red card and took the lead through Trevoh Chalobah’s 48th-minute header.

Arteta was especially impressed with Arsenal’s display because they started a Premier League match without injured centre-backs William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes for the first time this season.

Martin Odegaard and Viktor Gyokeres were fit enough only for the bench and Leandro Trossard was also absent due to injury.

In the circumstances, Arteta was delighted to see his team refuse to accept defeat after a draining seven days that started with a 4-1 rout of north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur on Nov 23 and featured a

statement victory over Bayern Munich

in the Champions League on Nov 26.

“It’s been a big week,” he said. “The derby, how emotional and the necessity to win, then Bayern Munich. We lost players in those games. Today we had to play a partnership we haven’t played before in a really difficult match.

“The team had to react to that. It’s been a positive week because the difficulty was immense. But I have this flavour that today we should have won the game, and we haven’t.”

As they chase a first English title since 2004, Arsenal cannot afford to be without Saliba for long.

The French centre-back was missing after suffering a knock in training and will be assessed ahead of the Dec 3 game against Brentford.

“It’s been a headache because we have to have a lot of option and changes in the last few months. Saliba was unexpected. Today was a great learning match for all of us,” Arteta said after his side moved five points clear of second-placed Manchester City and stayed six ahead of third-placed Chelsea.

Merino said Chelsea were “well-structured, they know how to defend, they have good quality players”.

“Still I think that if we are a little better, we could have done much more harm to the defence. I think the team responded good to the goal,” he told the BBC.

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca accepted Caicedo’s dismissal for a crude foul on Merino.

But he questioned why Tottenham’s Rodrigo Bentancur was not sent off for a similar challenge on Reece James in November.

Maresca was also frustrated that an elbow from Piero Hincapie on Chalobah left the Chelsea defender’s face bloodied but brought only a yellow card.

“Moises is a red card, but why Bentancur against Reece was not?” he said. “As managers, we try to understand why they judge in different ways. We struggle to understand.

“Trev one, I asked the referee, he said it was not an elbow. They judge in different ways. He has a black eye, he was with ice at half-time.”

James, usually a right-back, was outstanding in the centre of midfield but when asked if the England star, who has battled injury problems, will be able to play on Dec 3 at Leeds United, Maresca said: “The reality is no.

“We have a game on Wednesday. For Reece, we need to manage him and control his situation.”

James said he was proud of the way Chelsea had soaked up the pressure and countered. Pedro Neto was constantly busy down the right and substitute Liam Delap had a fine 78th-minute chance saved by David Raya.

“Disappointing to come away with only one point,” Chelsea captain James told Sky Sports.

“We went down to 10 men pretty early in the game and that made it more difficult...

“If you look at the amount of the yellows there were, I thought there was going to be one more red. It’s a London derby – everyone wants to win this game.” AFP, REUTERS