Chelsea were already 1-0 down when Neto received the pass from Enzo Fernandez, shifted the ball onto his left foot and sent a low drive from 20 yards into the bottom corner for the equaliser.

Our coaching staff celebrated passionately by the dugout while players like Renato Veiga and Joao Felix were on the pitch and had to fight the urge not to run and join their team-mates by the corner flag.

When asked if the emotion showed how much the goal meant to his team, Maresca replied: ‘Absolutely. You can see the players outside the pitch were on the pitch and you could see the togetherness. That is an important part of our season.’

Chelsea were more than a match for Arsenal, who have finished second in the Premier League for the last two seasons and have been playing under Mikel Arteta since December 2019.

The Blues enjoyed spells of dominance during the game at Stamford Bridge and could have taken the lead on several occasions before Gabriel Martinelli scored the opening goal.

Malo Gusto often pushed high up the pitch into an attacking number ten role alongside Cole Palmer when we were in possession and the Blues played with a lot of attacking intent.

‘One of the most important things was that the team were brave until the end and playing in the way that we wanted to play,’ Maresca said.

‘We play the way we want to play and it doesn’t matter about the other teams. They try to be aggressive and we still try to play our football and that is the most important thing - the identity of the team - and that is there. We have to continue with that.’