It was a lot better than a defeat of course, and so the Arsenal fans, players and manager owe a big debt of thanks to Mesut Ozil for the assist and Kieran Gibbs for the finish in the latter stages of the north London derby which rescued a point against the spuds.
But a draw at home, especially one in which the Gunners were outplayed for large parts of the game, was hardly the ideal performance and result that we wanted to take into the two week break for the latest round of international games.
After that terrible thumping in the Champions League group game away to Bayern Munich, the doubts were already beginning to creep in about our ability to keep going after the strong start to the season and they will not have been eased by the derby game on Sunday.
However, according to the words of our giant German centre back Per Mertesacker reported by Sky Sports, there is no need for concern. The World Cup winning defender has no retired from international duty and so is looking forward to resting and recharging his batteries before we head to West Brom and that is all that the Gunners need.
Mertesacker said, “It was fun to play but we all looked a bit knackered, especially in the first half.
“We gave absolutely everything to get a draw here and we will enjoy next weekend off, a few of us, then back to duty the next week.
“We stayed with the same line-up as against Munich apart from Gabriel, and even they played on Thursday but they looked fresh in the first half and then suffered in the second.
“It is difficult to explain but to sum it up both teams gave their all on the pitch and that is why it was a joy to watch and a joy to play, especially in the second half.”
Hopefully our BFG is spot on and with some big players due back from injury and others like Coquelin, Ozil and Monreal are not involved for their respective countries, we should be back to winning ways. So is there really nothing for Arsenal fans to fret about?