Arsenal:
         Lehmann
     Ralph Sol Kolo Ash
Ray (Den) Edu Gilberto Bob (Cygan)
    Henry Wiltord (Kanu)

It was a thrilling but slightly worrying start. Chelsea had a couple of dangerous attacks in the first couple of minutes. Campbell had to make a big defensive header to clear a good high cross, and then Lehmann did well to get to a low one just ahead of Crespo. Up the other end and Wiltord aimed a cut-back from the goal-line at Henry about 8 yards out, but he couldn't make contact with it. I'm not really sure why, it looked close enough to him, maybe the defender put him off. But the square ball moments later, when Henry was in more space, was definitely too far in front of him.

And that was just the highlights of the first 4 minutes. It was end to end stuff. Then we broke up another Chelsea attack and Parlour fed Wiltord in the centre circle. He did well to hold onto the ball as he brought it forward, despite having no-one in support. It gave Pires time to catch up with him but still, when Bob received Sylvain's short pass there was a big crowd of blue shirts around the pair of them. Pires juggled the ball and then tried to chip it forward to run onto, winning a free-kick for handball which looked a bit fortuitous to me.

Edu and Henry lined up to take it, with Ray and Gilberto in the wall. Edu placed it low through the gap left by those 2. It was heading for the middle of the goal and an easy save for Cudicini, but took a deflection off a Chelsea leg and wrong-footed the keeper to go just inside his left hand post.

Just 3 minutes later though, it was Edu that gave the ball away cheaply in the centre circle. 2 quick passes later and Crespo had it outside the box on their left. He cut inside Lauren, into acres of space which he should never have been allowed, and fired a scorching curler inside the far top corner of Lehmann's net. Terrific goal.

The game continued to be end-to-end. Lehmann was looking confident on crosses but, to be frank, he had to be. They were putting some dangerous balls into our box and Crespo looked more than capable of converting them - if only Lehmann would let him get the them first.

Our best chance was probably a solo break of Henry's, which ended when Melchiot shouldered Henry off the ball at just the right moment. While the Arsenal fans were baying for a penalty, our striker made a point of shaking his hand after the incident, to signal that it had just been a superb piece of defending. To be fair, Melchiot and Huth did very well filling in for the injured trio of Terry Desailly and Gallas. Maybe they're not so weak in that position after all.

All in all the first half could have gone either way, and Chelsea were well worthy of being level at galf time. They probably should have taken the lead in the first few minutes of the second. First Edu had to make a fantastic sliding tackle in our penalty area, then Crespo missed an excellent ball from Glen Johnson. I think maybe he was put off by a teammate who went for it too. We were lucky to see the diagonal cross bounce out untouched past the far post.

But we went straight up the other end and nearly went ahead ourselves when Henry got his head to Lauren's cross but from 10 yards out his header shaved the outside of the post. Great effort (some might say he should have hit the target but against a keeper like Cudicini there's no point aiming close to him).

And Arsenal continued to dominate for a spell of 20 minutes or so. A dangerous cross was scrambled out to Gilberto in a cantral position who had a free shot but scuffed it a bit and although it was going through a crowd of players it was too close to the keeper for the fact that he was unsighted to make a difference.

Another cross was cleared to Pires on the left. He brought it down nicely and hit the shot early forcing a good near post save.

Halfway through the half, with Chelsea coming back into things a bit more, Dennis and Kanu came on for Wiltord and Ray. It was a great move with Dennis in particular making a big difference. Suddenly the quality of passing forward for Henry was causing Chelsea new problems.

20 minutes to go and Edu slipped a ball forward for Pires to run onto into the left hand side of the box. Cudicini moved towards him and he squared it for Henry level with the right hand post. It arrived a little behind Thierry so rather than hitting it first time he turned through nearly 360 degrees before aiming for inside the that post. But th etunr had given Cudicini time to recover his ground and making a terrific save. Kanu got his head to the corner at the near post but it came back out off the post.

15 minutes to go and Dennis's quick thinking put Chelsea in a spin. He took a quick free-kick on the right wing, setting Pires off down the touchline. Henry was running goalwards as the low cross came in, but it was too close to the keeper. If Henry had been a little quicker (!) perhaps Cucicini would have just fallen on the ball as he should have done. But, having that little bit too much time, he decided to try to pick it up and ended up making a right arse of himself. As he bent over with legs apart he got a hand to th eball but instead of picking it up he just directed it back between his legs, a bit like that thing they do in Rugby League. Henry ran past him and knocked it into the net.

So, a couple of lucky goals against their excellent one. But on balance we just about deserved the win.

A couple of the Chelsea fans' chants deserve a mention. Instead of "shall we sing a song for you" it was "shall we buy a ground for you" but my favourite was (to the tune of "Can't take my eyes off of you" ie Freddie's song) the simple and honest "We're f**king loaded".

Arsenal go top by one point from Man Utd.