Bolton take point and praise

Bolton Wanderers 1 Arsenal 1: Everybody, it seemed, left Bolton happy on Saturday, even the drenched.

Bolton Wanderers made their point again, that they are a rising force to be reckoned with; Arsenal had a point, which Arsene Wenger thinks might be a smart one come May; and in Arctic weather there was an apparent thaw in relations between Wenger and Sam Allardyce.

Wenger praised Bolton as a team and as a club. He even suggested that, as fishers of men go, Allardyce is up there. Allardyce is not transforming loaves yet, but he has moulded Bolton into a club that sees Christmas on the same points total as Liverpool - this time last year, Bolton were jostling with West Ham to see who'd be bottom on Christmas Day.

On December 21st then, Bolton went to Upton Park knowing defeat would leave them bottom at Christmas and, as Allardyce informed his players, "relegated" five months before the fact.

Ian Pearce put West Ham ahead but Michael Ricketts came off the bench to equalise. As on Saturday, it finished 1-1. At the end of the season, Bolton were two points above West Ham.

December 21st, 2002, is clearly a day Allardyce remembers. Ricketts soon left for Middlesbrough, just as others such as Eidur Gudjohnsen and Claus Jensen have left Bolton in the past. But Allardyce has forged on regardless. Twelve months on, Wenger is comparing Bolton to Arsenal.

"Bolton being in the middle of the table is a bit like how we are at the top, with less resources than the teams around. Bolton have done extremely well."

Wenger obviously got a bit of self-praise into that statement and then continued the theme of lack of resources. Manchester United, he said, could always get over the Rio Ferdinand hurdle using "Christmas money", but it is not a tactic he can employ.

"Christmas money?" he smiled, "for my family and my children, yes. For my team, no. At the moment I am not worried about that, we want to finish the year well and the market does not open until January. At the moment I am not at all on the market. Not at all."

"Not at all" felt like three big words when Wenger delivered them in a vacated dining room after the game. Some hours on, "at the moment" smelled just as significant.

The subject of recruitment had been raised by Wenger in relation to Bolton and Jay-Jay Okocha. After a comparatively flat first half, Okocha was inspired in the second. All the Nigerian's dummies, dribbles and feints had purpose. It was no surprise to Wenger, who said he mentioned Okocha to Paris St-Germain after France 98.

"It's good fishing, especially getting him on a free," Wenger said. "I recommended him to Paris St-Germain after the World Cup. I already knew him from Frankfurt. He's on a high at the moment. He's done exceptionally well, today again."

The African Nations Cup is a problem, however. Bolton will lose Okocha from mid-January and, as Allardyce pointed out, Okocha is more than a tricky midfielder to Bolton.

"Jay-Jay's not just a player of outstanding quality, he is the skipper as well. He's a good talker, probably because he can talk four languages. He pulls the players together, organises them. He handles that position very well and we'll miss him because of that." Okocha struck one spellbinding pass in the 24th minute to Per Frandsen, who teed up Youri Djorkaeff to shoot over, but it was from the hour mark, when Okocha clipped the Arsenal woodwork with a beautiful free kick, that he really sparkled.

Bolton were almost indignant to have gone one down four minutes earlier, Robert Pires scoring yet another follow-up goal after Freddie Ljungberg had latched on to a Thierry Henry pass. Bolton responded by playing even better. Simon Charlton, Ricardo Gardner, Frandsen and Kevin Nolan excelled.

Pires had to clear with his head in the 78th minute after a Frandsen lob had beaten Jens Lehmann, but Bolton came again and when the ball fell at the foot of the substitute Henrik Pedersen, he spanked a half-volley of Mark Hughes venom past Lehmann. The stadium, which had been coated in an atmospheric thick rain all afternoon, was suddenly cosy with satisfaction.

Bolton go to Anfield on Friday having won there already this month, 3-2 in the League Cup.

"No club will fancy us at the moment, home or away," said Allardyce. And Wenger agreed.