Brighton and Hove Albion grabbed a hard-earned point from a second-half Joao Pedro penalty.
The spot-kick salvaged a point after teen sensation Ethan Nwaneri waltzed through the Albion defence early in the first half and planted the ball beneath Bart Verbruggen.
The new England manager Thomas Tuchel was at the Amex but ironically Albion did not have a single eligible Englishman on the pitch when the matched kicked off.
Arsenal knew that a win would put pressure on Premier League leaders Liverpool and they were quick to create chances.
With less than five minutes on the clock, the first decent chance fell to the former Albion midfielder Leandro Trossard whose every touch was booed by the home fans.
His effort was well blocked by Igor Julio who was deputising well at centre back for Albion’s unavailable captain Lewis Dunk, the club’s most capped England player.
Verbruggen then made a good reflex save from Gabriel Jesus.
With quarter of an hour gone, Declan Rice played a solid pass and Nwaneri sprinted away down Albion’s left and found a gap underneath Verbruggen to put Arsenal ahead.
Albion had chances too. When Riccardo Calafiori miscued, it presented Simon Adingra with a chance but he shot wide while falling.
And just before the half ended, Carlos Baleba had a shot from more than 30 yards but the ball ended up going out for a throw in.
After the break, with rain or sleet falling, Pervis Estupinan had a long-range effort go wide.
As for Arsenal’s bespoke corner and free-kick routines, Albion dealt very well with all of them.
Pedro won the penalty on the hour. William Saliba tussled with the stand-in Brighton skipper in the area and was adjudged to have fouled him with his head.
No ifs and no butts – Pedro scored to pull Albion level.
As chances petered out, substitute Yankuba Minteh raced clear of Calafiori to slide the ball across the area with David Raya beaten. Fellow sub Kaoru Mitoma was just unable to poke the ball home at the near post.
Aside from a couple of hopeful Arsenal headers, there were no other clear-cut chances.
Yasin Ayari took a free kick from 20 yards but slipped while taking it.
Albion travel to Norwich next Saturday (11 January) for their FA Cup third round tie followed by a trip to Ipswich in the Premier League five days later.
