Arsenal sweat in heat of the spotlight

After his widely-chronicled respite among the ranks of London luvviedom, George Graham was back treading the boards in football's equivalent of provincial rep at Highfield Road on Saturday. Fever Pitch may have hit the West End, but even in victo ry, theWest Midlands stage offered the embattled Arsenal manager cold comfort.

In the wind and rain at Coventry, as on a spring evening in Copenhagen, the chorus line crowed "One-nil to the Arsenal". Unlike the Cup-Winners' Cup triumph, however, the drama now centres exclusively around Graham. What started as a sub-plot is driving the narrative, a potentially calamitous state of affairs for the club with the longest unbroken spell in the top flight.

No longer are Arsenal's results interpreted in terms of how they affect their Premiership position (which, incidentally, might be verging on the precarious had Dion Dublin taken a routine chance moments before John Hartson's late, fortuitous winner). They are evaluated by whether they intensify or ease the pressure on Graham, with the danger that the distraction might precipitate destruction.

Matters may soon come to a head. On Thursday, the Premier League is due to report on its investigation into allegations that Graham received £285,000 from an agent, Rune Hauge, as part of John Jensen's transfer to Highbury from the Danish club, Brondby.

Should the three-man commission decide he has a case to answer, the matter will be referred to the Football Association. In that event, his position could well become untenable - or be seen as such by the board of directors that Graham insists are behindhim.

If Arsenal were more like Manchester United or - at the risk of inducing coronaries in the Clock End - Tottenham, there would be an argument for dispensing with Graham on footballing criteria. Did not Dave Sexton receive his cards from Old Trafford, despite a seven-game winning streak, because his side did not display the requisite panache? But Arsenal are not, and almost certainly will not, unless there is a Clause IV-sized reappraisal of the club's self-image above the marble halls.

That is not to say that Arsenal have always been "boring", to quote their detractors (and their fans' own self-mockery in happier times). Saturday's programme carried a reminder that on the second occasion Graham led them to the championship, in 1991, they finished with a 6-1 rout of Coventry that took their tally of goals to a creditable 74, and included a hat-trick by Anders Limpar.

Since then, they have lost the element of theatre which players like Limpar and David Rocastle provided, and embraced the dour functionalism personified by Graham's last major midfield recruits. With the team crying out for a playmaker in the mould of Liam Brady, Gary McAllister or John Sheridan, he bought Jensen, "rested" on Saturday after reportedly complaining about Arsenal's long-ball banality, and Stefan Schwarz.

As long as this approach was successful - and only Alex Ferguson can match his brilliant record of six trophies in nine years - few supporters were complaining. Recently, the feeling has grown that Graham has lost the plot, although this time it was the man in the rival dug-out whose head the crowd were demanding.

In Coventry, 28 years among the elite have prompted the quip that if the Titanic had been painted sky blue, she would never have gone down. With four clubs being relegated in May, and Phil Neal's expensively restructured team dropping from 10th place in December to the bottom four after their ninth match without a win, many see only icebergs on the horizon.

For five-sixths of this game they were Arsenal's equals, and had slightly the better of the few chances. Dublin was the best player on the quagmire, hitting the bar with an early header and conjuring three backheeled passes that suggested his time in Eric Cantona's company was well spent. By the standards of the Andy Cole and Hartson deals, his value has probably doubled since his £2m move from United.

All mere hypothesis. Hartson, despite impressing more for his persistence than any of the finer striker's arts, was dealing in a more tangible currency. As Coventry cursed their captain's uncharacteristic failure to round David Seaman, the £2.5m recruit from Luton fastened on to a misplaced header and charged forward. Apparently oblivious to Ian Wright's calls, the Welshman tried a 20-yard drive which deflected off David Rennie to leave Steve Ogrizovic wrong-footed.

Cue the chants of "Neal out". It was perhaps significant that even after the FA Cup win at West Bromwich Albion, a banner bearing the same slogan had been brought to the game. The fans' reaction was "their prerogative", the Coventry manager said after the game, before admitting the almost annual scrap for survival was likely to go "down to the wire".

Graham's assessment was practically an indictment of himself. "There wasn't a lot of quality," he conceded, "but we battled away." Three points had been "overdue", Wright was "not at his best" and, predictably, Hartson deserved his break because he was "not afraid to fail".

With that he exited, stage left, his press conference over almost before it had started. But the curtain has yet to go up on the scene which may determine if Graham still has a role in football, or whether his will become one of the game's most notoriouswalk-off parts.

Goal: Hartson (78) 0-1.

Coventry City (4-4-2): Ogrizovic; Pickering, Borrows, Rennie, P Williams; Marsh, Darby (Jones, 81), Cook, Jenkinson; Dublin, Wegerle. Substitutes not used: Flynn, Gould (gk).

Arsenal (4-4-2): Seaman; Dixon, Linighan, Bould, Keown; Campbell, Hillier (Parlour, 68), Schwarz, Morrow; Hartson, Wright (Kiwomya, 84). Substitute not used: Bartram (gk).

Referee: J Worrall (Warrington).