COMING away from Arsenal with a point in the bag is no disgrace and the reason Hull City were able to do that was because of the game plan employed by manager Steve Bruce.
Bruce had obviously done his homework on the Gunners and opted to stick with the 3-5-2 which has proved so effective for City in recent weeks.
But rather than employ attacking wing-backs and give them a license to get forward at will, he kept things tight and ensured they tucked in to form what was effectively a five-man defence.
The thing with Arsenal is you know they've got quality all over the park and you know they're going to carve out openings at some point.
What you have to do is restrict that and try to ride out their spells of pressure as best you can.
The Tigers did that to great effect, hitting them on the break whenever they got a chance and working extremely hard off the ball.
Having fought back to 1-1 with a neatly-taken goal from Mohamed Diame, the Tigers fully deserved to be 2-1 ahead after a great goal from Abel Hernandez reminded everyone what he is capable of.
After doing the same on his debut, the £10m man has been a bit subdued since and he again looked tired after being on duty for Uruguay.
Having said that, it was one of those matches when Hernandez and natural play-makers like Hatem Ben Arfa could not really play their usual game.
As someone who likes to get forward and carve out openings, the game plan of hitting Arsenal on the break did not play to Ben Arfa's main strengths. He still helped out his team by digging in and tracking back, but he was far quieter than some fans may have expected.
The same could be said of Ahmed Elmohamady and Andy Robertson, who had to defend very deep at times even though they were effectively sent out to play as wing-backs.
But on the few occasions when they did get on the ball, their quality was still there and they were far from isolated.
Gaston Ramirez also found the going tough when he came on for a jaded-looking Hernandez with half an hour to go.
Playing the on-loan Southampton man up top did not really work and as he struggled to hold the ball up, it kept coming back to put the Tigers under constant pressure.
However, when the equaliser did eventually come there wasn't really any individual who was at fault, it was just down to the attacking ability of Alexis Sanchez. And that's pretty much what you'd expect from someone who commanded a £35m price tag from Barcelona.
His tricky footwork and ability to keep hold of the ball in a tight space allowed him to draw defenders and left Danny Welbeck in just a little too much space.
Having picked him out with a neat ball, Welbeck did not need a second invitation to fire home from inside a packed penalty box to make it 2-2.
In truth, the goal had been coming because City had retreated deeper and deeper into their own half after coming under a late onslaught.
Arsenal can be accused of overplaying at times, but they are still a very good attacking side and it took an outstanding team performance to secure a point.
Collectively their efforts certainly deserved a draw, and on another day they may have nicked a win. That can only give them confidence ahead of a weekend trip to face Liverpool at Anfield.
