Nicolas Jackson gave Aston Villa the advantage in the 39th minute after John McGinn had missed a first-half penalty. Fulham improved after the interval and equalised through an unfortunate Zion Suzuki own goal in the 64th minute, earning a deserved point at Villa Park.
Arbeloa was particularly pleased with the determination his players demonstrated after the interval, having demanded greater aggression during the half-time discussion.
“We have to be more aggressive. That's the Premier League.
“Of course, we are a team that wants to control the game with the ball, but in the Premier League you need to fight, you need to be aggressive, especially when you go man to man.
“We needed to fight more than we did in the first half, and we needed to play with character and with ambition. And I think that's what we did in the second half since the first minute, and we did really well.
“Maybe we deserved a little bit more, because we have many, many chances to score some more goals, but at the end it's one point in a difficult stadium, so I am happy because of the performance of my players.”
The Fulham manager refused to become overly concerned about his team's finishing, believing the creation of opportunities was a positive sign.
“I think I would be more worried if we don't create chances, but we are creating chances, so we need to keep believing in the way that we are playing. We need to keep working on our finishing.
“Maybe sometimes we need to be a little bit lucky – we were today with the goal, but we missed our clear chances. It's about creating chances, don't concede chances, and playing in the way that we believe, and I think we did really well.
“We have a very difficult match against Newcastle United next Saturday at home, and yes, we need to continue growing as a team, because we are just starting. I'm so happy and so proud of my players.”
Emery acknowledged that Villa had been the stronger side during the opening period but felt Fulham deserved their equaliser after taking control following the restart.
“It's a disappointing result, a fair result.
“We tried to keep being consistent, improving, getting the result at home. Trying to get our Villa Park, our fortress, and we are in this way. We didn't win, but we didn't lose.
“They deserved it as well because they are playing well, they are organised and they created chances. We played the first half, dominating more, creating more chances than the second half.”
The Villa manager was frustrated by his team's inability to maintain possession and dictate proceedings after the interval.
“The second half in the first 20 minutes, they were pushing, they were dominating, and were creating chances.
“They had corners offensively and we were not keeping the same consistency with ball possession and dominating like we did in the first half, so this draw was a fair result.”
Emery nevertheless insisted Villa would continue their progression rather than allow the setback to undermine their confidence.
“It's one stop in our progression, one stop in our capacity to face the top positions, still being in the middle of the table.
“We will keep going forward. The next match on Tuesday is the Champions League and we will try to prepare as best as possible. There's still work to do and of course after today, and this result being disappointing for us, we keep going forward, trying to analyse and improve.”