They have not won the title for 45 years and if they continue to squander leads against fellow title contenders like Arsenal it will be at least another 45 before the championship pennant flies over Stamford Bridge.

The men in blue came off heads down and disconsolate. For them it was two points lost.

Arsenal, in contrast, were ebullient. No Patrick Vieira, no Tony Adams, no hope, it seemed, as they fell two goals behind. They regarded the 2-2 draw as a point won.

'We were stupid,' said Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink scorer of Chelsea's first goal on the half-hour.

He must have thought, like the majority of the near-35,000 crowd, that the victory had been secured by Gianfranco's Zola magnificent strike on 58 minutes.

But it wasn't to be and he added: 'We have to defend as a team and we did not do that. We have lost two points. If we want to be a great team, we have to learn to play badly and still keep the three points.'

Chelsea need to show a ruthless streak but not the unacceptable kind shown in the only crude tackle of the night. It was from Graeme Le Saux on Lee Dixon and it left the Arsenal full-back with a bruised knee.

Gianluca Vialli, the Chelsea manager, wants his team to be more professional in handling the kind of situation that has twice confronted them in home matches with Arsenal in the past two seasons.

On each occasion, a two-goal lead has been surrendered. Last season it brought defeat, last night a draw.

'I have quality players here,' said Vialli.

'They try to play football all the time. Sometimes, though, we have to not care where the ball is is going as long as it is going far away from our goal.'

The Arsenal fans left the Bridge singing that their West London rivals would 'never beat the Arsenal'.

With 20 minutes to go Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was not so confident as he tried to find a route back into the game by putting every attacking player he had in his squad on the pitch.

'I had to bring on all the offensive weapons to try to get back into the game.

'Yes, I gambled and it worked. It is never easy to make those decisions.

'If you lose 4-0 everyone blames you. If you draw, you did the right thing. But I had to try something.'

It can't be have been much fun for Chelsea facing Thierry Henry, Nwankwo Kanu, Dennis Bergkamp and Sylvain Wiltord, especially when memories of last season, when Kanu hit a hat-trick in the last 15 minutes, came flooding back.

'We were a bit too cautious in the first half,' said Wenger, an accusation that can't be levelled at Arsenal in the second period. But, with Zola at his elusive best, it seemed to be of no avail.

Wenger believed, however, that if Arsenal could get one goal, more would follow and so it proved.

Henry scored with a curling shot in the 76th minute. Substitutions followed from both sides. Arsenal brought on Fredrik Ljungberg for Robert Pires and the Frenchman gave the Swede a good luck hug.

Zola found his withdrawal by Chelsea harder to accept and was seen muttering angrily about the decision as he took his place on the bench.

Zola and Vialli have never been bosom buddies and it was only a peace deal between the two, brokered by managing director Colin Hutchinson in the summer, that ensured the Sardinian stayed at Stamford Bridge.

'When we scored, you could see how it affected their confidence,' said Wenger.

'We started to go too deep,' explained Vialli.

It seemed, however, as though Chelsea would hold out but they reckoned without Silvinho's shooting power. The Brazilian full-back must have watched a video of his predecessor Nigel Winterburn at Stamford Bridge two years ago.

That day Winterburn struck home a venomous 20-yarder. Last night Silvinho swerved his shot past Carlo Cudicini and into the right hand corner of the net with four minutes left.

Arsenal were delirious and Chelsea were stunned.

The finger-waving, tut-tut gesture of Chelsea full-back Christian Panucci suggested he thought his fellow Italian in goal might have done better.

Henry was another one who might have done better in the last minute when Bergkamp crossed and he snatched at his shot. So the scored stayed at 2-2 and the moral victory was Arsenal's.

'When we were together at our training camp in the summer, I could see there was a tremendous spirit in our squad and we proved that by coming back as we did,' said Wenger.

Vialli believes Chelsea will become better as they improve their fitness although last night was more about mental than physical strength.

As for the Marcel Desailly-Martin Keown rematch, it never materialised.

After all the finger-pointing and recriminations in Paris during and after France's 1-1 draw with England it was assumed there would be another instalment when combat resumed last night.

But Desailly resisted the temptation to point at the scoreboard above the Matthew Harding stand, even when it showed a 2-0 advantage to Chelsea.