Arsenal 1 Middlesbrough 1:ARSENAL'S TITLE challenge has reached breaking point. The numbed silence that engulfed the home dressingroom after this latest setback reflected a side deflated, exhausted and, critically, overhauled. Players shuffled in their seats, staring blankly at the floor. Blood, which had seeped from the gash suffered by Gael Clichy, stained the showers as if to speak of a wounded team.
"It was like a defeat," conceded Arsene Wenger. "It is the flattest I've seen them after a game."
The Frenchman later reflected the mood at Birmingham City, scene of Eduardo da Silva's horrific fracture and the stoppage time penalty which started this slump, had been comparably grim. Since then Aston Villa, Wigan Athletic and now Middlesbrough have secured draws against Arsenal and a five-point advantage at the top has disappeared. This side is joint top today yet, judging by the sense of anticlimax, their season - domestically at least - appears to have turned.
The manager, like his players, seems perplexed at the sudden shift. Frustration left Wenger monotone and haggard in his post-match briefing. Middlesbrough had been wonderfully organised, stifling from front to back as they suffocated Cesc Fabregas and Mathieu Flamini in the centre, but that, as Wenger conceded, was "nothing revolutionary".
Arsenal are confronted by such tactics on a weekly basis these days, yet they appear to have regressed to last season's deficiencies. This was predictable: a bright opening, a sloppy concession, a build-up of tension and a late reward which maintains hope of a kind. Kolo Toure leapt to nod them level four minutes from time, the ball creeping in off Andrew Taylor and Mark Schwarzer on the goalline. "There is no obvious reason (for the slump), apart from the fact we dropped two unbelievable points at Birmingham and that has maybe had consequences on our league form," said the manager.
Arsenal had seen this coming. William Gallas had taken his team-mates to one side in the build-up to Boro's visit and warned them the goalless stalemate at Wigan had been a legacy of the startling win at San Siro against Milan a few days earlier. "The difference was in the head," he had said. "It's difficult to find the same level of motivation for the following game. Time is running out this season. But there are only nine league games left. What is nine games out of your whole career? No excuses now. Nobody can be tired, because nine games is nothing."
There are only eight now. There were times on Saturday when Arsenal players appeared stumped on the edge of the Boro penalty area, confronted as they were by frantically committed defenders. Schwarzer's save from Fabregas, slipped in by an otherwise anonymous Alexander Hleb, prompted wails of exasperation. Emmanuel Eboue and Fabregas clipped the woodwork. Emmanuel Adebayor had a perfectly good goal ruled out for offside, George Boateng having inadvertently presented him with the ball.
Yet there was much that was of Arsenal's own making. They were sloppy in conceding the goal, Schwarzer's punt collected by Tuncay Sanli to square for Jeremie Aliadiere to guide in a fine finish against his former club. Toure called it a "silly" goal. Where Arsenal revel in a lead, streaking forward to wreck opponents on the break, they are easily flustered in arrears. The advantage encouraged Boro to scrap.
Gareth Southgate's afternoon was tarnished only by Mido's dismissal for the high boot that inflicted Clichy's cut. Boro will not be appealing against the decision but remain hopeful Mark Halsey might reconsider when he submits his report, given the Egyptian appeared unaware of the full back's presence.
Meanwhile, Fabregas has reopened the row over Martin Taylor's foul on Eduardo, insisting the Birmingham defender should take the blame for the incident. While the Blues camp has rallied around Taylor, who was sent off for the challenge, Fabregas believes the defender is culpable."Of course I blame him," said Fabregas. "He did it and he knows why he did it. Of course he is not going to say he did it on purpose. But a very good player is injured for a year and the player who committed the tackle is suspended for three little games. It is very, very unfair."
