The highly debatable sending off of Ricardo Gardner on the half-hour did Arsenal no favours in this game. Up till then Bolton had been coming out, defending from well up the field, and leaving space for Arsenal to break into. We'd wasted a few chances, and the one time Wiltord had got the ball in the net it was wrongly ruled out for offside.

But once down to 10 men the away side closed ranks, and Arsenal's attempts to play the ball through them kept falling down due to over elaborate play in the final third.

It took the more direct play of second half subs Pires and Jeffers to break the deadlock. Bob beat the offside trap to get clear in the box when Henry poked the ball through for him from the D, and selflessly set up Jeffers for an open goal.

16 minutes to go, and it looked safe enough. But as Bolton started to attack again we started making bad mistakes. Luzhny gave the ball away badly several times, but it was Adams who let them in for the equaliser with just under 10 minutes to go. He chased Wallace into the box, but stopped short. It looked very much like he pulled up because he though the ball was going out, but he could have been feeling the cramp which had seen him receiving treatment moments before. Wallace was able to keep the ball in and it came to Ricketts who turned well and fired over Seaman.

Full report to follow. See reports page for list of links to reports on other sites.