As the final whistle sounded, and for much of the 90 minutes, Arsenal fans were frustrated. It hadn’t been a particularly bad performance, but they never truly looked like they’d come away with the three points. Everton had outfought the league leaders.

In the build-up to kick-off, defeat was all too predictable. The early kick-off away from home against a historical bogey-side with a new manager; you couldn’t write a more perfect backstory for an upset. From the moment the ball was in-play, it felt like the players believed this was Everton’s day too.

With the recent defeat in mind, and the average Arsenal fan’s love of a premature meltdown, you might be wondering why Gooners seem so content? Was this actually a pretty positive weekend for the North London side?

As much as Arsenal fans have ignored the ‘elephant in a tree’ comparisons and fought back against pundits who have treated Arsenal’s crumble as inevitable, it would take a particularly confident fan to claim there’d be no trip-ups between now and the end of May. Arsenal fans have known that at some point, they likely would drop points, whether to a rival or to a team they’d be expected to beat on paper.

As explained, if you were to pick out any fixture in which Arsenal may be on the end of an upset, this would have been a lot of people’s pick. Therefore, after City’s defeat to Spurs, it’s easy to view this weekend not as dropped points, but as a slip-up out of the way. What’s more, it’s a slip-up out of the way, with their 5 point lead and game-in-hand in tact.

Ignoring Manchester United’s gained ground, Arsenal have had a slip-up, as we knew they would, and haven’t been punished for it. It’s Manchester City who have missed out on closing the gap. An 8 point lead would’ve been nice, but 5 is still very healthy, and it’s another game week closer to the title. Not to mention another week closer to the return of Jesus and Smith-Rowe.

All-in-all, defeat aside, it’s been a pretty good weekend.