It was a disappointing result drawing 2-2 at home to our bitter rivals Tottenham and there was a lot to be frustrated with, however, there were also some positives and we should acknowledge that.
It is always easy to identify the negatives and to focus on them but if you do that you will end up missing the signs that things are improving and that we will see the benefits later on in the season.
Arsenal showed character
Arsenal never gave up when they went 2-0 down and you could see from the body language of the players that they believed they would claw the two-goal deficit back and that is exactly what they did. Last season when they went down a goal they tended to fold rapidly, but not last week against Liverpool and certainly not yesterday against Spurs. That is an improvement on last season.
Matteo Guendouzi
It is easy to forget that he is just 20 and despite being surrounded by some world-class players and having to take on all-comers for his position he was still the man of the match. It is not his fault that he is not the creative player that Arsenal needed yesterday but he did his job better than anyone else on the pitch, he never gave up and made sure Tottenham did not get control of the midfield and when you consider that his partners were Mr liability Xhaka and the strangely ineffective Torreira, his performance was even more remarkable.
PAL
Pepe, Aubameyang and Lacazette may not have sparkled first time out as a threesome but we saw enough to see that it will work beautifully and I am positive that if Lacazatte was not taken off with a slight knock that Arsenal would have won the game. There was understanding and cohesion between them and of course, there are some rough edges to smooth out, this was their first start together, but the signs are clearly there that the trio will be as good as any other front three in the league and I include Liverpool and Man City’s formidable front lines in that.