Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger was impressed at how his young team coped with the hothouse atmosphere during their 2-2 draw with leaders Chelsea in the Premier League confrontation at Highbury on Sunday.
"I think the team can be proud of the performance even if they lack the maturity to be calm at times," said Wenger. "But they are also disappointed because they are winners and we lost an opportunity to come back to two points behind Chelsea."
Chelsea scored twice from set pieces to cancel out two goals from Thierry Henry and leave Arsenal five points behind their London rivals in the race to defend their English title.
Injuries to Brazilians Edu and Gilberto, the suspension of club captain Patrick Vieira and a late recurrence of Freddie Ljungberg's migraine forced Wenger to field a central midfield partnership of Francesc Fabregas and Matthieu Flamini, with a combined age of 37.
While 17-year-old Fabregas has made 11 starts in the Premier League, Sunday's derby was the first for Frenchman Flamini.
"I feel they did extremely well," said Wenger, "because apart from set pieces, where they're short and always going to be in trouble, I don't think Chelsea had more chances and the longer the game went on, the more it looked like only we could win the game.
"That was because as time went on they won the battle in the midfield."
Wenger was also pleased by the performance of Spanish goalkeeper Manuel Almunia, who kept his place in the Arsenal side at the expense of German Jen Lehmann for a fourth straight match despite making errors in previous games.
"I feel that's one of the positives of the game," said the Frenchman. "He's not a big name so obviously the scepticism is always there; when you first come in you have to prove you are good enough. I believe he has made one step towards that."
