Arsenal eye up second place

ARSENE WENGER has known in his heart for some weeks now that his side were not going to win this season's Premiership title. On Saturday, confirmation reached his head.

Manchester United's breakfast crunch at Liverpool, coupled with Arsenal's failure to make toast of Blackburn, left the Highbury club's manager conceding the championship to Old Trafford.

"The best team have won it "he admitted with a grace missing from his recent spat with Alex Ferguson over extending the season.

But the up-side of being able to finally write off this year's championship is that Wenger can now focus on making sure that Arsenal's title challenge next season is much stronger.

His immediate task is to increase transfer income and confidence by beating Liverpool and a resurgent Newcastle to the runners-up spot, which carries with it a Champions League place.

That quest takes in tonight's difficult visit to rejuvenated Coventry and ends with a game against Derby, in the last-ever game at the Baseball Ground.

One of Arsenal's problems is their small pitch and its tendency to compress play. The stadium's geography precludes it being enlarged.

"We find it difficult to be dangerous at home," said Wenger. "To be efficient we should maybe play longer balls and be better in the air. There is a lack of physical power in the side and we must also bring more speed inside the team.

Wenger has been linked with a European Football Yearbook full of players this season, from Paul Ince to George Weah and Roberto Baggio. But Wenger will buy, in his own time and in his own way.

Certainly, Arsenal must find more creativity than they did on Saturday. They went ahead on 18 minutes when Martin Keown headed Dennis Bergkamp's cross against the post and David Platt followed up to score.

But although Nigel Winterburn twice went close , after half-time Blackburn began to dominate a fractious game of nine yellow cards and deserved their equaliser. That it should emerge from a moment of poor sportsmanship by Chris Sutton was unfortunate.

Tim Sherwood committed an awful, late tackle on Stephen Hughes and Patrick Vieira kicked the ball out for his team-mate to receive attention. Eventually, Blackburn took the throw-in and, in acknowledged fashion, gave the ball back to Arsenal.

But as Winterburn collected it running back towards his own byline, Sutton defied the spirit of the gesture by chasing down the Arsenal full-back and forcing a corner. Kevin Gallacher took it and Gary Flitcroft swept the ball past David Seaman with a joy that betrayed its importance to the 1994-95 champions' fight against relegation.