3 standouts from Arsenal's dull draw with title rivals Chelsea

Arsenal were held to a 1-1 draw by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday evening. It was not the brightest of games, but the draw looked worse on Arsenal's end than it did on Chelsea's, as the Blues got a point despite being a man down.

Arsenal went behind due to a goal by Trevor Chalobah, before Mikel Merino equalised with a header to make it 1-1.

The game had few moments of brilliance from either team, and there weren't that many standout performers, but I have tried to curate a list anyway.

Here goes:

Bukayo Saka

One of the better performers on the night, Saka is one of the very few players who actually wanted to win, it seemed like. There were a lot of attacks going through him. When nothing was working, Saka actually tried to force Arsenal to victory. It did not work, but so much of Arsenal's laboured attack went through Saka.

He also obviously got the assist for Mikel Merino's goal on the night, and even when things looked bleak for Arsenal - especially before the goal - Saka seemed to be the only man who wanted to give it a go and change the score.

To end the game, Saka had an assist, five crosses (two were accurate), two key passes, one dribble, three shots and one on target. He was also fouled three times, and in the limited touches that he had, he tried to do a lot for his team.

Mikel Merino

Merino was the most involved player for Arsenal strictly in terms of key events. He was the one who got the much-needed equaliser for the Gunners. And he was also the player who was fouled by Moises Caicedo for a red card.

He played as a striker as none of Arsenal's actual strikers were fit enough to start the game, and it looked to be one of the highlights for this Arsenal team.

Merino had three shots, two of them were on target. He was also fouled three times. He won one tackle, had two clearances, and had two out of four accurate long balls.

Jurrien Timber

Timber was Arsenal's best defensive player on the night, and it was not close.

He played his part well, and was able to combine well with Saka on the right side. It was also very good to see the intensity from Timber on the evening, and he would feel hard done by to see the results of it.

Timber had three tackles, two interceptions, one clearance, one shot, one dribble, was fouled twice, and had three crosses.

It was not the most eventful game for Timber going forward, but he played his part well.