The Blues were edged out 2-1 by the Gunners in north London, with both goals for the hosts coming via set-pieces – much the theme of their season thus far.

William Saliba nodded home the opener for the Gunners, before James delivered an excellent corner that Piero Hincapie turned into his own net to level the score at the interval.

Despite a bright start to the second period, the game got away from the Blues during a five-minute spell that saw Jurrien Timber restore Arsenal's advantage before Pedro Neto received a second yellow card soon after, leaving us with 20 minutes to play with ten men.

Despite our man disadvantage, the Blues pushed hard for an equaliser but were denied by a string of outstanding saves from David Raya. Liam Delap also had the ball in the net in stoppage time, only for an offside flag on Joao Pedro to chalk the goal off.

Despite a strong finish, we couldn’t force an equaliser, and the final scoreline left our captain disappointed and frustrated when reflecting on the game shortly after full-time.

‘It's disappointing to walk away empty-handed,’ James explained. ‘When it was 1-1 in the second half, we had a half-chance to make it 2-1.

'Their goalkeeper made a good save, then they get a set-piece down the other end and managed to score. And that’s very frustrating from our point of view.

‘It’s frustrating to concede from two set-pieces but this is football now in 2026. So many goals are coming off set-pieces and they [Arsenal] are one of the leaders in the world [at them].

‘They are difficult to stop, for sure. They scored two today and we’re disappointed at that. But at the same time, we scored one, and we had another chance to score another at the end. It wasn't meant to be today, but we need to look forward.’

The Blues have a chance on the horizon to put this game right, with a trip to Aston Villa awaiting us on Wednesday evening.

That game bears extra importance in the race for a top-four finish given the position of the two sides, and the skipper feels it’s time to turn the focus towards that fixture now.

‘We have to review the game and see where we can improve,’ added Reece. ‘We have another big game in a few days and we have to focus on that.

‘It didn't go our way today but we need to regroup and go again on Wednesday against [Aston] Villa.’