Pompey will feel aggrieved about Arsenal's goal, but at the end of the day I don't think they can complain about the result. They played very well and deserved their point, but no more.

It was deja vu all over again in the first half, with Arsenal returning from the international break looking totally jaded. as expected Bergkamp started, in place of Wiltord. But perhaps in retrospect Wenger will regret making 2 changes in midfield. Gilberto was out and replaced by compatriot Edu, but Ljungberg was rested too, with Ray Parlour coming in on the right of midfield.

No criticism can be levelled at Ray though. In the first half he (and Lehmann) were probably the only 2 Arsenal players who looked at all up for it. But Edu was woeful. He seemed to have forgotten that you get tackled in football. He'd get the ball and wait to be dispossessed (apart from when he passed it to a blue shirt). Having said that, he wasn't helped by being partnered by a very wasteful Arsenal captain.

It was Vieira who gave the ball away in the centre circle to start the move that led to Pompey's opener after 25 minutes. Paddy passed to Berger who sent the ball over to their right wing. It was played forward into Stone's path, catching Cole out of position, and the winger's low cross was nodded in by Sheringham who'd got in front of the centrebacks at the near post. Yes, Sheringham. It was horrible.

We'd been lucky not to go behind just before that when the ball was (again) given away in the centre circle, and knocked forward for Yokuba (?) to run onto. He had 2 defenders on his heels but not enough to excuse hitting the shot straight at Lehmann (who had done as much as he could coming out to narrow the angle, but it shouldn't have been enough).

At this stage, Pompey had had a few half-decent attacks and a few woeful long-range shots at goal of the sort you jeer at while hoping they don't get too many more chances like that. Arsenal had had one shot, from Parlour. Not a bad effort from the edge of the box after a nice run, and only just too high, but it came after more than 20 minutes of the game. We looked asleep apart from that.

But with 7 minutes to go till the end of the first half Pires showed he was awake. Bursting into the Portsmouth box, reaching up with his right boot to knock his first touch forward, running onto it past a static defender, he had the presence of mind to stick out his right foot so that it made contact with the defender's leg, and down he went. Yes, it was pretty dodgy. I haven't seen the replay on telly yet and hope that somehow I;m wrong, but from our position in the Clock End we were perfectly placed to see what happened and there was really no doubt about it. All the Arsenal fans around me were grinning at each sheepishly and saying "that was never a pen...".

Still hoping that Henry scored it of course. And he did, twice. Not sure why the ref made him retake it, possibly because of encroachment (although there didn't seem to be anything unusual) and possibly because Thierry out a huge pause in his run-up. My gut feeling was that it was the latter, if only because the second time he took it he very definitely didn't pause. The first one went wide to the keeper's right, the second just off centre to his left. Both went in.

Le Boss obvious gave the team another half-time bollocking, cos they came out a lot more fired up for the second half. Edu in particular was a different player altogether.

Arsenal edged the second half as Portsmouth had the first, and there were bad misses from Toure and Yokuba (again) as well as unlucky ones from Campbell and Pires (both headers from corners - the first bouncing up in front of Hislop who tipped it over the bar, the second just missing the far post).

Freddie came on for Edu, with Ray moving infield, but I don't think it helped. By that point (halfway through the second half) Edu and Paddy were doing a lot better in the middle, and Ray had been linking up well with Ralph and Dennis on the right. Wiltord came on for Bergkamp a bit after that.

Two other incidents spring to mind: the ref had to change his shirt halfway through the first half because he'd worn a dark one which made him look like a Pompey player (and them all like refs). Why oh why didn't someone think of that before the game?

And a special mention to one particulat member of the superb and very loud army of travelling Portsmouth fans. This guy brought a big bell that he kept ringing to our great (but irrelevant) annoyance. The police told him to stop but he carried on. So they came back and led him away, giving us the opportunity to sing "you're not ringing anymore".

Man Utd beat Charlton today, but we were 3 points clear before today, so we still have our noses in front. Next premiership match: Old Trafford next Sunday. But there's the little matter of the visit of Internazionale before that.

Oh, and finally, an interesting email from Ian Mackenzie... "My son, who's doing reffing courses here in Switzerland, says that they are taught to book players who clearly dive in the box - an action illustrated by a photo of a young, short-haired Pires in his Olympique Marseilles days".

No comment.

Rupe adds...
Thanks to Mark for the following, "Obviously you being up the Clock End may have missed the bit when Lehmann entered the annals of Arsenal history and became a legend on the North Bank when he took out Sheringham. The ref had already blown for offside...." (and yes I do remember wondering what was going on but it was far too far away to work it out)

He also has some info about the bell-ringer... "He turns up to every England home game and annoys everyone but never gets evicted! A couple of years ago there was a TV ad where they got his mum to take the camrea crew into his bedroom (yes he still lives with his mum)."

And David Elek gives us the history (from an Arsenal programme or book a few years ago, he thinks)... "The bellringing harks back to the 1930s, when Pompey were a top team and had a large travelling following, with a significant number of navy personnel. A fairly rough crowd, who'd attend games in navy clobber and there would always be one or more bell-ringers on the terraces, presumably to stress their navy credentials"