LONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Ten-man Chelsea held Arsenal to a 1-1 draw in a highly charged top-of-the-table London derby on Sunday, Mikel Merino cancelling out Trevoh Chalobah's Chelsea opener to spare the Premier League leaders' blushes.
The result means Arsenal sit five points clear at the top of the table on 30 points ahead of Manchester City with Chelsea third on 24.
Chelsea were already a man down when defender Chalobah flicked a header into the net from a pinpoint corner by captain Reece James three minutes after the break.Chelsea had been growing in confidence and were edging Arsenal going forward until Moises Caicedo was sent off in the 38th minute after a VAR check for landing a crunching tackle on Merino's ankle.
Arsenal replied when Merino rose to meet a Bukayo Saka cross in the 59th minute. They pushed for a winner with substitute Martin Odegaard going close twice and Merino forcing an outstanding save from Robert Sanchez in the dying moments.
Merino said Chelsea were "well structured, they know how to defend, they have good quality players".
"Still I think that if we are a little better we could have done much more harm to the defence. I think the team responded good to the goal," he told the BBC.
The game was a real derby scrap from the outset with some bad-tempered clashes and referee Anthony Taylor, rarely slow to reach into his pocket, also brandished seven yellow cards - six for Arsenal and one for Chelsea's Marc Cucurella who spent the match snapping at Saka's heels.
"Disappointing to come away with only one point," Chelsea captain James told Sky Sports.
"We went down to 10 men pretty early in the game and that made it more difficult."
James said he was proud of the way Chelsea had soaked up the pressure and countered. Pedro Neto was constantly busy down the right and substitute Liam Delap had a fine 78th-minute chance saved by David Raya.
"If you look at the amount of the yellows there were, I thought there was going to be one more red. It's a London derby, everyone wants to win this game," he said.
(Reporting by Clare LovellEditing by Toby Davis)
