Chelsea 1 - 2 Arsenal

Chelsea 1-2 Arsenal

Updated: February 21, 2004, 9:54 AM ET

Chelsea's title pretensions were exposed as an expensively-assembled sham by a dominant Arsenal side, who ran out 2-1 winners at Stamford Bridge.

• Vieira: We've learned our lesson

If this was, indeed, Claudio Ranieri's day of reckoning, it was not an auspicious one as Arsenal moved into a convincing lead in the title race, with Manchester United also drawing at home to Leeds.

However, it was not just the 2-1 home defeat that left the Blues nine points behind the leaders which must have further undermined Ranieri's position in Roman Abramovich's eyes.

Rather, it was the way in which a squad assembled for £110million this season alone tamely threw away a stirring start to the game that was the real concern.

Having taken the lead after just 28 seconds through Eidur Gudjohnsen's strike, Patrick Vieira was allowed to stride through the Chelsea defence to equalise on 14 minutes.

Stand-in keeper Neil Sullivan was then guilty of a hapless blunder as Edu put the visitors ahead with just 21 minutes gone.

If that was not bad enough for Ranieri, who had only concluded a deal to bring keeper Petr Cech to the club this summer, worse was to follow in the second-half.

Gudjohnsen was sent off with 30 minutes for his second booking and an Arsenal side which never even extended themselves coasted to victory thereafter.

Having faded badly in the second-half of their FA Cup defeat at Highbury last weekend, Chelsea once again proved to be pretenders rather than real contenders as their run without a league win against Arsenal was extended to 17 games.

Indeed, if Abramovich had been a Roman emperor sitting in the Colisseum, you could have imagined his thumb being turned firmly down at the final whistle in his executive box.

The likeable Ranieri has worked hard to transform Chelsea but they remain as they always were under Gianluca Vialli and Ruud Gullit - just short of the real deal and prone to inconsistency.

Starting slowly has been their Achilles heel over recent weeks, but at least they were ahead inside the first minute as Geremi stole the ball from a strangely hesitant Vieira and curled in a cross which Adrian Mutu flicked on.

Gudjohnsen was lurking at the far post and, with Gael Clichy slipping, the Icelandic striker was left with enough space to power his shot past keeper Jens Lehmann.

However, Arsenal were not about to be pushed aside that easily and Vieira was on a mission to make amends for that earlier mistake as he struck the visitors' 14th-minute equaliser.

Having dispossessed Claude Makelele, he strode forward and, having been picked out by an exquisite through-ball by Dennis Bergkamp, the Frenchman buried his shot past Sullivan.

Geremi's response was to charge to the byline once again and cross for Gudjohnsen at the far post, although this time Clichy managed to block the striker's header.

Arsenal, meanwhile, were not finished yet, however. Former Spurs keeper Sullivan may have kept clean sheets in his three previous Premiership starts for Chelsea but he has rarely looked convincing.

While Chelsea recognised the need to spend £7million on Cech to provide adequate cover for Cudicini, the Czech international does not arrive until the summer.

So when Henry's corner was swung into the area, Sullivan flapped unconvincingly and after the ball rebounded off Gudjohnsen, Edu was able to pounce from close range to put Arsenal ahead.

Back came Chelsea, albeit without ever quite managing to regain their early momentum, and their desperation showed when Gudjohnsen was booked for diving.

Although John Terry showed superb control to bring down Makelele's chipped pass, he fluffed his shot and when Mutu cut back inside Clichy, he promptly slipped at the vital moment.

Then, what had already been an uphill climb suddenly became a mountain as Gudjohnsen was sent off.

The striker was booked for needlessly bringing down Clichy from behind and could have no reasonable complaints as he was sent off by referee Mike Riley.

Ranieri, who did not even catch Gudjohnsen's eye as he walked past him, replaced Scott Parker with Jesper Gronkjaer as a result, while Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Joe Cole soon followed.

However, Arsenal never once showed signs of wilting and Gilberto was only denied by Sullivan's legs after a quickly-taken free-kick by Henry.

As a result, control of London had been firmly established. Now the title would seem to be a two-horse race but, with United also slipping up, the Premiership is Arsenal's to lose.

Vieira: We've learned our lesson

Patrick Vieira believes Arsenal have learned from last season - and will not squander another chance to win the Barclaycard Premiership.

Vieira netted as the Gunners won 2-1 at Chelsea to move seven points clear at the top of the table, with Chelsea a further two points adrift.

Last year Arsene Wenger's men had a five-point advantage only to be overhauled by Manchester United - but French international midfielder Vieira is determined they will not be pegged back this season.

He said: 'Of course we have put ourselves in a comfortable position but we have learned a lot from last year and will try not to make the same mistake.'

Asked what the mistake was, he added: 'Maybe having too much confidence - thinking we would win games easily.'

He continued: 'There is still a long way to go but the wins means a lot to us.

'We showed good spirit and belief in ourselves and we deserved to win the game.'

Eidur Gudjohnsen gave Chelsea the lead after just 28 seconds but Vieira insisted the team were not fazed by the poor start.

He added: 'We knew the first 15 minutes would be quite difficult and didn't have a good start - but we showed good character and responded very well.'

Dennis Bergkamp set up the equaliser for Vieira, before Edu made it 2-1 in the 21st minute, ahead of Gudjohnsen's sending off on the hour after two bookings.

Vieira said: 'Dennis had a fantastic first half - he drove the team on and fought for every ball. I just had to put the ball in the net.

'Our self belief is really high - and knew what we had to do to win this game.

'We defended well as a team - it was the perfect game away from home.'

Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri said before the game he believed his team's title chances would end if they lost today - but Vieira did not agree.

He added: 'Not at all. There is still a long way to go - but we're playing very well.'

Wenger said: 'For us the most important thing was to win here - and you could see how much we wanted to win, the players knew today has an influence on the championship.

'At 1-0 we found the strength to bounce back and felt we were focused to keep the result.

'The players wanted to win this game so much and it's the strength within the team that got us through.'

The Frenchman always believed his team had the power to overcome Gudjohnsen's early opener, adding: 'I knew we could come back.

'Patrick is not known as a goalscorer but he lost control in the build-up to their goal and that made him angry - it made him say `I want to repair that and go forward' - and today he finished very well.'

Wenger did not agree with Vieira that over-confidence cost the Gunners last season, adding: 'We are not over-confident now but last season I felt we were probably too nervous.

'This season we want to keep going and win every game - but the lead is not big enough to say it's over.

'It's far from over. There is still a long way to go - but it's good to be in the front seat.'

Ranieri did not agree, adding: 'There are 10 or 11 matches left but I think nine points is too much to make up, although we want to fight to close the gap because it's important to continue to build.

'We never gave up today. Well done Arsenal but both teams played well and created chances, and we had chances when they had an extra man.'