Arsenal:
            Lehmann
    Lauren Toure Campbell Cole
Parlour (Edu 66) Vieira Gilberto Pires
   Henry Bergkamp (Reyes 80)

All that took the pressure off a bit, and thankfully the Arsenal helped us relax even further when Vieira poked the opener home within 3 minutes. It was one of those Arsenal goals that starts with a corner for the opposition. Garnder got his head to the ball on the far side of the box, but could only head it towards the D where Henry picked it up and set off up the field. He bore left, skipping round one white shirt, then slipped the ball forward for Bergkamp near the left touchline. His cross was almost too strong for Vieira but he extended one of those Inspector Gadget legs and in it went. As it happened, Pires was beyond Vieira and probably would have received the cross himself. Quiet something, really, that Dennis Paddy and Bob had all kept up with Henry's run.

The 3 of them also combined for the second, 10 minutes before the break. A crafty Bergkamp pass put Vieira in space on the left, he took it deep then cut the ball back into the box where Pires coolly side-footed it in.

Tottenham huffed and puffed but were restricted to speculative efforts: a low free kick by Redknapp that Lehmann fell on and held, and a decent Taricco effort from distance that landed on top of the goal. Amazingly, they'd left Defoe on the bench. They brought him on at half time and it gave them a bit extra, but as the pushed on it always looked like Arsenal might grab another on the break, and Pires and Cole came close (the latter forcing a good save from Keller). As predicted, Cole had made the start, but Ljungberg had pulled out late as he was still feeling his injury a bit. It gave Ray Parlour the chance to make his first start for ages: it was particularly nice that he was able to play a part in this game (we missed him during that bad week where the cups went pear-shaped).

But with half an hour to go Redknapp hit a superb shot from 25 yards out to give the home side a sniff, and things really livened up. Henry went close a few minutes later, when Pires put him clear on Keller but he lifted it wide of the goal as well as over the keeper. Then Redknapp came very close with a free kick, and Pires hit the bar.

Reyes came on for Bergkamp and managed to get in the way of a Henry shot after good work from Pires.

As the 3 minutes of injury time started, Defoe hit a dipping free-kick which Lehmann tipeed over. At the ensuign corner, Lehmann clearly held Robbie Keane in the goalmouth. There was a bit of confusion as the ref consulted his linesman but eventually he booked both players - probably fair although Keane's retaliatory shove might have brought a red out of some refs' pockets. Keane scored the penalty, but fortunately it was too late to cause any serious worries.

Some reports are saying that Tottenham's come-back "spoiled the party" in some sense. What nonsense. We won the league, at White Hart Lane, again. We stopped them being the team that stopped our unbeaten run. That's plenty, thank you very much.