It was rather fitting that on the night when the late John Sullivan’s family were in attendance, Chelsea should be rescued by the man they call Dave.

Sullivan was the genius behind Only Fools And Horses, the creator of Del Boy, Rodney, Boycie and Trigger, and a lifelong Arsenal fan. He would have been 67 on Monday. One of his running jokes was that Trigger, no matter how many times he was corrected, mistakenly referred to Rodney as Dave.

Discussing Del Boy’s impending fatherhood, Trigger tells his pub audience: ‘If it’s a boy they’re going to call it Rodney.’ Pause. ‘After Dave.’ And so it was that when Cesar Azpilicueta arrived at Stamford Bridge, the players took one look at that name, with its many syllables, that p straight after the z and the tricky cuet sound near the end and decided: Dave.

So Dave it is, and Dave it was who, at the moment when Chelsea could have surrendered three points in the final minute, came to the rescue. Bacary Sagna’s header was not the most powerful, but it was downwards and goalbound, and there would have been precious little time for Chelsea to get back into the game had there not been a protector at the far post.

And that protector was: Dave. He launched the ball upfield and Chelsea survived. He certainly won’t be invited to Arsenal’s Christmas party next year — unlike the man he replaced at full-back, Ashley Cole.

You’ve got to hand it to Jose Mourinho. He knows his way around matches like this. It is 10 games and counting without defeat against Arsene Wenger and despite that late escape, had Chelsea not got a point here justice would not have been done.

Arsenal had a smattering of chances late on, but Chelsea had the best of the first half and looked more dangerous on the break. As they settled for a draw, the Arsenal fans taunted them with cries of ‘Boring, boring Chelsea.’ The arch riposte would have been that Arsenal were meant to be at home. It didn’t look like it for long periods.

A search party would not have turned up Mesut Ozil — at a cost of £42.5million, the man the club should be looking to for the decisive influence on nights such as this — and first had to locate Olivier Giroud. The striker was anonymous until late in the day, when he missed one good chance, and was thwarted with another. So rare were Arsenal’s opportunities that when Giroud was played in after 78 minutes by Aaron Ramsey, the whole place stiffened in expectation.

Here, against the odds, was the goal that would separate the teams. Not only did Giroud miss the net, he missed the side-netting, too. His shot was sliced horribly wide, much to the derisive jeers of the away end. Soon after, Tomas Rosicky found Kieran Gibbs on the overlap, picking out Giroud again, only for a combination of Petr Cech and the outstanding John Terry to divert his shot over the bar.

Terry, along with Gary Cahill, Dave and Branislav Ivanovic, were the success story of the night. The only mistake Ivanovic made against Ozil was a high boot that nearly provoked a fight, but the rest of the time he was entirely under the Serb’s control.

In front of the back four sat a protective bank of as many as five, with John Mikel Obi particularly effective. Some thought he should have been sent off for a challenge on Mikel Arteta that caught the Arsenal midfielder high, but it appeared both men were reckless in their approach and the culpability could easily have been reversed.

One genuine Arsenal grievance occurred in the 37th minute, when Willian clumsily brought Theo Walcott to the floor in the penalty area, only for his transgression to be ignored by referee Mike Dean.

Meanwhile, the architect of Wenger’s frustration stood imperious on the perimeter of the technical area throughout this, the latest rain-blasted edition of their rivalry. It was Mourinho’s night, in more ways than one. He will have felt most pleased with the result, his team turned in the better overall performance, and the inhospitable conditions reflected his gameplan.

Chelsea were not negative, but they were constant, cussed, spoiling, much like the rain that drenched the Emirates Stadium and many within. Chelsea’s organisation won the day, as did the weather. It was a night on which it was impossible to play the beautiful game, and Chelsea settle more happily into the ugly side of things.

They resisted Arsenal defiantly, broke more threateningly on the counter attack and Arsenal were limp and ineffectual for long periods. Wenger had sought a reaction to the 6-3 defeat at Manchester City, but this wasn’t it. A defeat would have been worse, but a strong performance would have been better. Wenger sat doubled over, arms tightly folded across his stomach on the bench. He looked like a man in pain. He wouldn’t have been alone, watching this.

All that could be said in defence of the teams is that these really were the filthiest conditions imaginable. Swirling wind, heavy rain — from the opening minutes when Gibbs overhit a simple back pass it was obvious the weather would be the star performer here. Arsenal’s technical game would be blown off course and even Chelsea’s more robust approach was no match for the conditions.

Once the game got going, however, it was Chelsea who set the early pace. They had several opportunities but the pick of it — the pick of the night, in fact — came in the 32nd minute when a Willian chip, exquisitely delivered and perfectly timed, fell for Frank Lampard ghosting into space on the far side of the penalty area. He met the ball on the volley, blasting it against the crossbar and down, but out.

A minute later, Eden Hazard’s fine run ended with a feed to Fernando Torres but Wojciech Szczesny was equal to his rather underpowered shot. Chelsea’s best spell finished with a dangerous break from Hazard, knocking the ball in to Willian whose shot was snatched and disappointing.

It was, in this way, typical Mourinho. Chelsea’s 0-0 draw at Manchester United earlier in the season had put the padlock on the champions, and here he contrived to do the same to the early front-runners.

The fact that in throwing a big blue blanket over the proceedings he also managed to have as many chances, underlined his clarity of thought. Mourinho replaced Torres with David Luiz late on, prowled some more and called it a night.

—Daily Mail