Arsenal were almost made to pay for sloppiness against Middlesbrough but had Petr Cech to thank after he pulled off an important double save.
The ever-reliable Laurent Koscielny was guilty of being caught in possession by Adama Traore who raced through on goal and evaded a tackle from Shkodran Mustafi before being stopped by Cech.
The veteran shot-stopper wasn’t finished there either as the ball broke to the feet of Alvaro Negredo, but Cech was back on his feet to deny the Spaniard with another great save to keep it goalless.
Gaston Ramirez struck the bar just a minute later before he had another great chance to break the deadlock but missed again to let the Gunners off the hook.
Arsenal have made a habit of grinding out wins in their last two games with victories over Burnley and Swansea City, and judging on the opening stages of this encounter, it appears as though they’ll have to do so again this weekend if they wish to go top of the Premier League table.
Tottenham missed the chance to leapfrog their rivals after being held to a draw by Bournemouth in the early kickoff, and with Manchester City not in action until Sunday, Arsenal have the chance to move clear at the top temporarily.
Petr Cech en dos tiempos.
INCREÍBLE pic.twitter.com/3XPT9blvb3
— Arsenal FC español (@Arsenal_FC_es) October 22, 2016