No goals from either side, but the Blues will be the happier side of the two.
After two lung-busting performances against Spurs on Sunday and the rugged midweek display against Barcelona in midweek, it was to be expected that Chelsea would ring the changes and they did.
Arsenal, for their part, put on a display that was at best insipid and worse, tired-looking.
The home side cement their third place in the league with this point, while Chelsea can take comfort that another clear sheet will go a long way to ensuring they have a good chance of overhauling failing Spurs and Newcastle Unted in the coming weeks.
Tomas Rosicky had the first effort on target on six minutes when picking the ball up just inside the Chelsea half. He raced through, Chelsea rearguard fell back inviting the shot.
It duly came but Petr Cech snuffed out the 20-yarder easily. Two minutes later and Salomon Kalou zipped into the Arsenal area, but stumbled at the last moment, no claim for a penalty after Bacary Sagna challenge and none given by referee Mike Dean.
Arsenal should have taken the lead on 14 minutes when a perfectly clipped curling right-footed free kick by Theo Walcott was met by Robin Van Persie, but the Dutch striker subbed the ball onto Cech's right post.
Chelsea looked dangerous on the break and on one counter-attack on 23 minutes, Daniel Sturrdge picked up the ball and raced forward, he passed the ball left to Salomon Kalou but Laurent Koscielny intercepted the wideman's byline cross to concede a corner. With three minutes of the half remaining, a Van Persie free kick was met by an unmarked Koscielny, who headed from close range onto Cech's crossbar.
Cech was forced into action a minutes later, this time beating away a Van Persie half volley.
The home side finished the stronger, forcing Chelsea into Alamo-mode, which, to be fair they had plenty of experience in midweek against Barcelona.
The seconds half started with no changes in personal on either side, but the game was very much the same, cagy with counter-attack the preferred attacking policy.
Theo Walcott who looked like he sustained a hamstring injury pulled up suddenly on 60 minutes, to be replaced by Gervinho.
The Gooners then replaced Rosicky for Diaby on 65 minutes in an attempt to break down Chelsea stoic defending.
Chelsea boss Roberto Di Matteo countered this move by replacing Oriol Romeu with Mikel to minutes lat.
Chelsea's first worthwhile effort on goal cam a minute later but a Sturridge shot had the sting taken out of t by Vermalen and the ball inched towards Wojciech Szczesny.
Arsenal boss decided he had enough of winger Alex Oslade-Chamberlain and replaced him with Andre Santos on 68 minutes.
Chelsea continued to put bodies on the line and on 71 minutes Michael Essien did just that, throwing himself in front of Diaby's venomous drive from just outside the Chelsea area.
Juan Mata entered the fray with 16 minutes to go as Di Matteo sensed that perhaps Chelsea needed an attacking option to halt Arsenal's dominance. Kalou was the man who went off.
Mata then put the ball n the net seconds later but was clearly offside. Ashley Cole came on to resounding boos from the home fans as he replaced Ryan Bertrand with 14 minutes left on the clock.
Van Persie though he had won a penalty on 82 minutes but referee Mike Dean judged that the striker had backed into Cahill and not a foul from the England centre-back.
Cole , only on a matter of minutes found himself in the ref's book for a foul, much to the obvious delight of the majority of the 60,111 crowd inside re Emirates Stadium.
A slip-up by John Terry allowed Van Persie, wide on the right to break free. but the hit-man hacked the ball high and wide of Cech's goal with the minutes ticking away.
With Essien giving the ball away on 86 minutes, Arsenal zipped forward with pace,feeding Van Persie once again. Cech, not for the first time this afternoon prevented the striker from scoring.
Teams: Szczesny, Sagna, Vermaelen, Koscielny, Rosicky, Van Persie, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey, Song, Gibbs. Subs: Diably, Santos, Djourou, Fabianski, Gervinho, Chamakh, Coquelin
Chelsea: Cech, Essien, Romeu, Torres, Malouda, Bosingwa, Kalou, Sturridge, Cahill, Terry, Bertrand. Subs: Cole, Lampard, Mata, Mikel, Meireles, Ferreira, Turnbull.