Mikel Arteta was disappointed we couldn't end a big week with three more points against Chelsea, but said he was proud of his players' efforts over the past few days.
After beating Tottenham and Bayern Munich already this week, we went into another big London derby at Stamford Bridge, and had to settle for a point against the ten men of Chelsea.
"That was a big week and a really intense and emotional match today," the boss said afterwards. "You could sense from the beginning how much was at stake, two teams putting everything into every action.
"It was more of a battle in the first few minutes especially. There was a lot of interruption, a lot of intervention from the referee and that changed the context of the game. We had four yellow cards, they had [Moises] Caicedo out and in that moment we have to settle the game. There was an opportunity to do it at half-time, we didn't use it because immediately in the first action we concede a foul, a wide free-kick, a corner and a goal.
"Then emotionally we have to overcome that situation after everything we've been through this week. The team tried its best, and scored a great goal.
"But then we lacked certain patience as well and certain quality in certain moments to generate more momentum, more action, more second balls and more chaos for them in and around the box. But I think overall, with everything that we've been through this week, I think it's been a positive one - but I'm still disappointed that we didn't get the three points."
The result takes our unbeaten run to 17 matches, and we are now five points clear at the top of the Premier League table. It also means we have avoided defeat in each of our last seven visits to Chelsea.
The manager said he was expecting a tough encounter against the third-placed team in the table, especially given how much energy had been expended already this week, and with a completely new central defensive partnership for us, with William Saliba joining Gabriel on the injured list.
"Yes, and especially they had another day to prepare for the game," the boss added. "One more day than us, which makes a big difference as well. We lost some players in that period, after the Bayern game as well, very important players. The team, again with partnerships that we haven't done before, competes really well, is there on the match but we are not satisfied because we wanted to win the game."
Next up it's Brentford at home in the Premier League on Wednesday, as the heavy winter schedule continues.
The boss said: "We will see if we can recover somebody [for that game]. We had some good news, like Viktor today coming on, Martin having some minutes as well. So, we're going to need everybody. On Wednesday we play again, a really tough match at home, and we're going to need everybody."
Read more Every word from Arteta's post-Chelsea presser
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