Rob Holding believes Arsenal should have beaten Chelsea on Wednesday evening, given the chances they created, but left with a point after mistakes were made in defence.

Holding came in for his first Premier League start since the 2-0 win over Brighton in October and found himself in an open game. Both sides created plenty of chances, and will have come away wondering how they didn’t win.

Some might say that a point was fair, but Holding feels Arsenal should have won. “No, I think we did enough to win it,” he told Arsenal.com. “A few mistakes at the back cost us and we had loads of chances in first half.

“We hit the post and the other post, so if those chances go in it’s a different game. We did well to fight back and get a point in the end.” A “few” mistakes is being kind to a very shaky defence. If not for Chelsea’s poor finishing, the scoreline may have been very different.

rob holding v bate
Rob Holding has been short of playing time this season. Picture: Stuart MacFarlane

Nonetheless, the draw contributes to Arsenal’s good recent record against Antonio Conte’s side. “I think we’ve got a good recent history against Chelsea, there have been entertaining games and we’ve had the better of them I would say,” Holding added.

“They are always competitive games and you can see today everyone is at it, trying to get that win.” No team has recovered more points from losing positions in the Premier League this season than Arsenal.

Our dodgy defending has seen us fall behind 11 times in games, but the side has managed to get a result on six of those occasions. Holding feels that shows Arsenal’s resilience.

“I think the cliche of Arsenal being easy and pushovers, I don’t want that, we want to push on and be aggressive and go for the win and not give up.”

Arsenal had taken the lead in the second half thanks to a powerful strike from Jack Wilshere. However, Chelsea struck back with a dubious penalty, and then took the lead through Marcos Alonso.

Holding acknowledged Chelsea’s threat on the counter, but praised his teammates for coming back. “I think we were pushing forward and they countered well. They nicked that goal, but we showed our resilience to fight back and get the goal.”