Arsenal Ozil Chelsea Ivanovic
Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil and Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic have a go at each other during their English Premier League game, December 23. Reuters

Arsenal vs Chelsea on Monday night was quite like a game involving the Jose Mourinho I'm-the-manager-of-the-compact-defence-first-team of old. And the result of such a strategy was Arsenal, who were not particularly good it must be said, unable to find a way through, and Chelsea not quite adept enough in the counter-attack which in turn meant a rather forgettable, can't-believe-neither-team-really-showed-up stalemate.

The 0-0 draw in the English Premier League at the Emirates saw Arsenal go level on points with Liverpool, but the Reds remain top on goal difference - a Christmas present that Brendan Rodgers would not have even dreamt of at the start of the season.

Chelsea are back in the top four, two behind the leaders, with Mourinho, who bulged his unbeaten streak against Wenger to 10 games, no doubt the happier of the two managers, after seeing previously porous defence shut out the likes of Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey.

The Blues came to the Emirates with a game plan, a plan that is so familiar with a Jose Mourinho side, biting at the Arsenal players and setting the tone for a scrappy game.

The Gunners, still reeling from that 6-3, mauling at Manchester City, just did not have enough potency going forward, with tiredness and a lack of confidence coming to the fore.

However, it might just all have been different had a couple of decisions gone the home side's way. First, John Obi Mikel was perhaps a shade lucky to escape a red card - he did not even get a yellow - after lunging high onto the ankle of Mikel Arteta, with Arsenal then feeling even more aggrieved as Willian, employed as more of a make-sure-you-are-doing-your-defensive-work-first-winger, clipped Theo Walcott inside the box as the play continued, with referee Mike Dean, who Arsenal have an utterly poor record against, in terms of results, unmoved.

But then Chelsea also had a case of going ahead in the first half, when Eden Hazard found Frank Lampard with a wonderful pass, but the midfielder could not keep his shot down, with the ball deciding to crash onto the crossbar.

It was a bit of this and a bit of that for much of the 90 minutes, with neither side doing really enough to warrant a win - in fact Arsenal are probably more culpable for not forcing the situation, considering they were the home team.

The Gunners would finally apply some sustained pressure only in the final few minutes, as the Chelsea back-four, retreating back with every passing minute, firmly placed themselves in their own penalty area.

Olivier Giroud, who missed three will-you-please-score chances against City, had a couple of opportunities, slicing one over, before Petr Cech was on hand to stop the second effort.

Thomas Vermaelen, in for the injured Laurent Koscielny, and no doubt happy to keep a clean sheet at one end, nearly scored at the other, but his goalbound header was cleared off the line by Ashley-Cole-place-stealer Cesar Azpilicueta off the line, leaving Wenger, yet again, wondering what might have been.

That is three games in the Premier League - against the two Manchester clubs and now Chelsea - that Arsenal have failed to get a victory out of, and if the North London side are to seriously sustain their title tilt, a win against their rivals needs to come sooner rather than often.