Arsenal failed to make up ground on the Premier League leaders after a 1-1 draw against Fulham on Sunday evening.
Oleksandr Zinchenko, Riccardo Calafiori and Gabriel Magalhaes all were unavailable for the Gunners due to a various strain of injuries thus not included in the match day squad.
Mexican Raul Jimenez hit the host to the perfect opening after ten minutes played when he slid in-behind of William Saliba to get goal-side and fired across David Raya into the net.
Arsenal targeted a fast response around the closing stages of the half as Declan Rice's first-time shot from a third-man run to the area rolled inches past the far post.
The Cottagers didn't drop deep after going in front but still showed ventures in forward areas before seeing a low penetrative strike by Sasa Lukic put Raya to work.
Mikel Arteta's men were more buoyant to getting on level terms as the clock to halftime loomed and a rasping drive outside the box by Bukayo Saka got Bernd Leno to make a save.
In the second period, the Gunners refused to give up thus continued to press forward through Saka, Rice, Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard moreover.
With just under five minutes in, the response came when the self-same Havertz knocked a pin-point delivery from Rice to the path of Saliba to tap in an empty net.
Havertz targeted one himself a couple of minutes later with a snap-shot on the turn right in the box, but unfortunately nestled well wide.
Arteta went to the substitutes bench near the closing ten minutes – reviving attack to bring on Gabriel Jesus for Havertz as well as Mikel Merino in place of Jorginho.
The Cottagers looked to have gone behind two minutes from time as Saka finished off from pin-point range, but a pitch-side review ruled out the effort for an offside in the build-up involving Gabriel Martinelli.
It didn't stop the Gunners pursuing the winner with the minutes to the close of play fast approaching, but 1-1 it finished.