First thoughts: Manchester City (H)

My raw reaction on the final whistle to Arsenal vs Manchester City

Thoughts at full time, big picture, the positives, and the negatives.

Main takeaway: Arsenal save themselves from an even bigger hole

There will be plenty of time to talk about some of the major decisions here but the main thing that I am thinking about right now is that while a draw is almost never what you set out for, saving a point in this match feels like it can be huge.

Arsenal were looking at a six-point gap to Liverpool had they lost, five points isn’t that much better but the gap being two losses somehow feels much worse. Especially with the looming feeling that eventually it will click for Liverpool and their chances of dropping points will shrink.

Arsenal were coming into this match defending 1.6 expected points on the overall simulation and leaving with zero would have been a massive difference.

Arsenal still have lost 1.4 points to Liverpool this weekend but drawing and getting this point back minimizes that from where it could have been 2.4 points. It would have still been early, but it would have started looking like trouble for Arsenal to get back into the title picture.

It is a bit of a soft factor as well but losing this just seems like it would have been a totally deflating moment and while fighting back for a draw isn’t that drastic on the points front, showing the fight to turn around a losing position, especially late in a match is a major lift for the team.

I don’t want to have to be doing this all of the time but I was starting to worry about how dark and negative things were going to be in the Arsenal world and this gave a major lift for all of this.

Positives:

• Gabriel Martinelli making another game altering contribution. This is the second match in a row that he has come off the bench and scored a game altering goal. During the week he scored the go-ahead goal and here he got the equalizer. For a player that had seen his stock fall so far, this has been a major week to remind all of us about his talent. Good opportunity to plug my deep dive into him as well that really looked at a lot of the factors and what has changed for him over the last three seasons.