Henry picks up injury but seals Arsenal reward

One by one Arsenal are reducing contenders to pretenders. On Sunday Liverpool left Highbury nine points adrift, yesterday Chelsea were left eight points in arrears. Trailing to an early Marcel Desailly own goal, they were defeated by late strikes from Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Thierry Henry. A last-gasp rally, during which Mario Stanic and Emmanuel Petit scored, was not quite enough to rescue their challenge.

Had Sunderland held out against Manchester United for 10 more minutes at Old Trafford we would now be calling Arsenal champions-elect. As it is, the holders have established a five-point gap which, with United still to visit Highbury, is a decent cushion. Not that Arsène Wenger is yet ready to repeat last season's boast that the title is as good as grasped, nor even to discount other rivals.

"I'm confident but we now have to get our consistency to return," he said. "It is not yet a two-horse race. Chelsea, Liverpool and Newcastle are still there."

Up to a point they are but, as far as Chelsea were concerned, this was their match of truth. They went into Christmas lurking ominously and, had they beaten Southampton at home on Boxing Day, would have gone top, albeit for only a few hours. But with this match in mind, Claudio Ranieri reverted to his self-styled alter ego, The Tinkerman, and rotated vigorously. He made six changes for the Southampton match, seven at Leeds, and six yesterday. No one played the full holiday programme of four games in 12 days and, as a consequence, Chelsea went into this match fresh of mind and limb.

But they had paid a high price, their disjointed performances limiting them to one point from Southampton and Leeds. The Gunners, by contrast, had retained seven ever-presents and taken seven points. For this match Wenger only mildly amended his line-up, restoring Dennis Bergkamp and bringing in Oleg Luzhny. As the game went on it became increasingly clear that they were running on empty, fuelled only by desire and confidence, but that proved a powerful combination. "We needed to dig deep," Wenger said. "I could see we were physically jaded but mentally we really wanted to do it."

Arsenal's way also had a cost. Henry was limping in the last five minutes having damaged a hamstring. As it was never intended to employ him in the FA Cup against Oxford on Saturday there is no immediate concern, but Arsenal will hope he is fit when their Premiership campaign resumes at St Andrews on 12 Jan. Birmingham under Steve Bruce is no place for the infirm.

Henry's injury may well have been prompted by tiredness as he played Chelsea's defence on his own in the second period. Arsenal, outpassed and outrun by Chelsea, had pulled back to defend in depth a freak eighth-minute lead, gained after Ashley Cole's cross for Bergkamp had clipped Desailly's heel and bounced over Carlo Cudicini and in.

Henry, marked by his compatriots Desailly and William Gallas, was in his element. With Bergkamp supplying the passes he set up Gilberto Silva and Sylvain Wiltord on the counter-attack, forced a fine save from Cudicini and shot wide himself. All the time, at the other end, Chelsea sought without success to unlock the red-and-white wall in front of David Seaman.

Then Stanic sold Frank Lampard short, Van Bronckhorst nipped in, fed Henry and set off. With Kolo Touré making a distracting run, Van Bronckhorst was left clear to take Henry's return pass and drive a shot into the far corner. For a man still working his way back after 10 months out with a cruciate-ligament injury it was a sweet moment.

"As I shot I just thought back to all the hard times I have been through," he said. "It is my first goal since February and it was extra special. It made all the hard work worthwhile."

Two minutes later, Petit and Eidur Gudjohnsen got in a tangle and Arsenal counter-attacked again, Henry exchanging passes with Gilberto Silva before beating a surprised Cudicini at the near post.

The game seemed over but Chelsea rallied when Stanic headed in a corner. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink kicked the ball out of Seaman's hands as he gathered a Gudjohnsen header and Petit scored. In a frantic finale Hasselbaink ought to have converted Jesper Gronkjaer's cross for what would have been a deserved leveller.

"My players showed pride and if we had had a little luck we would have drawn," said Ranieri. "We never said anything about winning the title. We would like to but the important thing is to keep playing like this. The gap between us, Arsenal and Manchester United is not that big."

This season, at least, it looks like remaining unbridged.

Arsenal (4-4-2): Seaman 6; Luzhny 7, Keown 7, Campbell 6, Cole 7; Wiltord 4 (Lauren 4, 68), Vieira 6, Gilberto Silva 5, Pires 4 (Van Bronckhorst 7, 56); Bergkamp 7 (Touré, 79), Henry 7. Substitutes not used: Taylor (gk), Jeffers.

Chelsea (4-4-2): Cudicini 4; Melchiot 5, Gallas 5, Desailly 6, Babayaro 5; De Lucas 5 (Gronkjaer 4, 56), Petit 6, Lampard 5, Le Saux 6 (Gudjohnsen 5, 70); Hasselbaink 5, Zola 6 (Stanic, 79). Substitutes not used: De Goey (gk), Terry.

Referee: U Rennie (Sheffield) 5.