Arsenal ... 3 Chelsea ... 2: The range of Arsenal's performance here was so great that they were both Premiership frontrunners and the most hair-raising of challengers to their own ascendancy. The versatility that Arsene Wenger dreams of is not supposed to encompass the bumbling with which two goals were conceded in the last five minutes. Even so, the irrationality brought sense to the result.
Chelsea, so devoted to attack after the interval, would have been wronged if this had turned into a 3-0 clouting. Mistakes in the Arsenal defence fine-tuned the result nicely and it was fair, with a Jesper Gronkjaer cross skidding past the nose of a diving Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink in the final moments, that Claudio Ranieri's men could not quite pluck a draw from all the madcap entertainment.
Arsenal might giggle in merry relief, but errors are no laughing matter for a veteran who commits them. The greater his age, the more he will be treated as a senescent liability. Both goalkeepers had incidents to rue, yet Carlo Cudicini, the younger man, will not find his reputation marred by a second of ineptness that cost Chelsea what proved to be the key goal.
With seven minutes left, Thierry Henry worked an exchange of passes with Gilberto Silva before hurtling down the left. The forward's turn inside William Gallas was expert and the soft shot towards the near post crafty, but Cudicini, well-positioned, ought never to have eased the ball into his own net with both hands. With his career on the rise, though, he may be on the receiving end of sympathy.
For David Seaman, there will only be brickbats. It is futile to try and divert attention to the other offenders in the Arsenal ranks. The Chelsea revival was sparked when the back four let Hasselbaink have a free header from an Emmanuel Petit corner so that Mario Stanic, the substitute, could nod in, but with a few men at fault the blame gets spread around.
Seaman had no one to keep him company in the embarrassment that was to follow. With three minutes left, Sol Campbell shepherded the ball back and the goalkeeper fumbled so that Petit could force a shot into his old club's unattended net.
Later Seaman would claim, with plausibility, that he had been fouled by Hasselbaink, but he did not eradicate the impression of frailty when his command should have been absolute.
On St Stephen's Day at Highbury, a similar situation had seen Milan Baros hit the post for Liverpool. There was much good work from the goalkeeper against Chelsea, but it is hard for him to stave off the common notion that he is at a juncture in life when he should no longer be sprawling around on muddy pitches.
Sven-Goran Eriksson finds that debate about the England goalkeeping position remains as agitated as ever.
If people truly were capable of regarding football solely as entertainment, there would be no recriminations over any facet of this encounter. Arsenal were fatigued yet, for the most part, they dealt with that factor well, as if it were one more adversary to be out-thought before the title can be retained.
It was not exhaustion, so much as a relaxation of attitude when a 3-0 advantage was established, that put them at hazard.
They went in front after eight minutes when Ashley Cole was released by Robert Pires on the left and Dennis Bergkamp, perhaps, got a faint touch to dab the low cross into the ground. The ball bounced and clipped the foot of Marcel Desailly so that its parabola took it over Cudicini and into the far corner of the net.
This hybrid goal, composed of skill and luck, was protected, for a long spell, as if it was curious treasure-trove.
Despite their flair Arsenal, for a while, looked like proving that they can defend their way to a win. This is a Chelsea side of increasing merit, but Wenger made his own line-up ever more conservative with substitutions and they struck well on the break against the visitors.
After Stanic put Frank Lampard in difficulties Henry, the sole remaining Arsenal forward on the field, sent Giovanni van Bronckhorst through on the left after 81 minutes to notch the second goal. The Dutchman, who had come on for Pires, stretched to get his drive in but still hit it true into the far corner of the net from 20 yards.
It was bizarre that Arsenal's command should be in doubt once the 3-0 lead was in place, but the established order has been reinstated in the table. It is the Highbury club, with a five-point lead, and Manchester United who will again contest the championship.
Guardian Service
ARSENAL: Seaman, Cole, Campbell, Keown, Luzhny, Wiltord (Lauren 69), Silva, Vieira, Pires (van Bronckhorst 56), Bergkamp (Toure 79), Henry. Subs Not Used: Jeffers, Taylor. Goals: Desailly 9 og, van Bronckhorst 81, Henry 82.
CHELSEA: Cudicini, Melchiot, Gallas, Desailly, Babayaro, Le Saux (Gudjohnsen 70), Petit, Lampard, De Lucas (Gronkjaer 56), Zola (Stanic 79), Hasselbaink. Subs Not Used: de Goey, Terry. Goals: Stanic 85, Petit 86.
Referee: U Rennie (S Yorkshire).
