In an exciting encounter which was often played at a fast pace in north London, the visitors deservedly took the lead in through Jayden Heskey then doubled our lead shortly after the break thanks to Mahamadou Susoho’s fine free-kick.
However, the Gunners hit back and took the lead after Amario Cozier-Duberry (two) and Khayon Edwards’ strikes.
Undeterred from falling behind, our EDS amazingly grabbed a late equaliser through Jacob Wright’s thunderous effort from the edge of the area.
Although Barry-Murphy believes the scoreline is a fair reflection of the match, he stated his elation in what he described as an ‘exceptional’ performance.
“It was a bit of a thriller, I thought in terms of the scoreline,” he said.
“I thought we played really well with a much changed team with the players who have gone away with England so it was very much a last minute decision with who was available and who would play.
“So many players came up from the Under-18s, but I thought we gelled amazing well. Their level of performance was exceptional.
“I was really impressed. We experienced how aggressive Arsenal were last year and in the first half we were able to build up our possession really well and create really good chances.
“The level of our performance was at an exceptionally high standard and I couldn’t be more pleased.
“Jaden scored a really good goal, I thought we caused the opponents a lot of problems with our movement and how we were in possession.
“It was a pretty quick and good game and the technical level in those moments were high.
“The trade off is if you get it a little wrong and they break quickly they can score which is what happened in the second half.”
Up next for our EDS is a UEFA Youth League meeting with Young Boys at the Joie Stadium on Tuesday 7 November.
It represents our fourth assignment in the competition as we aim strengthen our position at Group G’s summit.
And Barry-Murphy thinks our fightback against Arsenal will help us prepare for the challenge of the Swiss side.
He added: “We’ve seen good progress from the group collectively and individually throughout the course of the season.
“We were disappointed by our performance at Derby [in the 4-2 defeat]. We didn’t perform well in the second half at all.
“Tonight when we went behind we had a real strong sense we were going to come back into the game and [to] keep playing the way we were.
“We got into the box on numerous occasions. We had multiple chances to win the game but we weren’t able to take them.
“That’s very good signs for the team in a very tough period of games and it sets us up very well for the challenge of Young Boys.”
