Arsenal's fire draws a blank

Arsenal - 0 Fulham - 0 Perhaps Arsenal should have saved some ammunition from Milan. Certainly yesterday's aftermath to their 5-1 demolition of Internazionale in the Champions League five nights earlier was unexpected. For San Siro read zero-zero.

To Fulham fell the distinction of becoming the first team to deny Arsenal a goal at Highbury in the Premiership since April 2000. That they survived until half-time was largely due to the heroics of their goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, but then it was more a case of failing to hit a barn door.

Dropping two home points at this stage is hardly fatal to Arsenal's chances of regaining the title, yet it is a reminder of past profligacy which has cost them. Arsene Wenger's side may box clever but there are still times when they are less than clever in the box.

They were never likely to reduce Fulham's defences to the rubble through which they had eventually romped in Milan. Yet such was the ease with which Robert Pires, supported by Ashley Cole, turned them on the left in the first half that it was hard to believe Fulham would hold out.

In fact, not only did they do so but in the later stages achieved attacking momentum of their own. Had Steed Malbranque, normally a reliable finisher, not headed wide just past the hour Fulham might now be celebrating their first win at Highbury.

As it was, they got what they came for, Chris Coleman having entertained no romantic notions of repeating at Highbury the 3-1 victory his team had achieved against Manchester United at Old Trafford.

"We got everybody behind the ball, left Louis Saha on his own and hoped to catch them on the break," the Fulham manager explained. "It was one-way traffic for much of the time but we had worked hard all week on a certain system and it paid off."

But had it not been for van der Sar, Fulham's cover would have been blown at least three times before half-time, and that is a conservative estimate. The sweetness of Arsenal's passing threatened to drown Fulham in a deluge of goals once one had been scored. But for all the lightning flashes and thunderclaps the downpour stayed away.

The mercilessness with which Pires teased Moritz Volz, on Arsenal's books but on loan to Fulham, became a show within a show until half-time. Allowing borrowed footballers to play against their employers is questionable, but Pires was not complaining as he went past the German like a turbo-charged Citroën overtaking a Beetle.

This happened less in the second half, partly because Pires and Fredrik Ljungberg swapped wings, but as much because Volz kept his head and his concentration. It was an attitude that summed up Fulham's performance as a whole.

They were frequently under pressure but never lost their discipline, and increasingly that pressure was relieved by the consistency with which Sylvain Legwinski broke up Arsenal's movements and brought the ball out of defence.

What proved to be the template of the afternoon was set in the 15th minute when a superbly angled long pass from Dennis Bergkamp found Ljungberg making a late run clear of the Fulham centre backs. A goal looked certain, but van der Sar, off his line and narrowing the angle, managed to push the Swede's shot wide.

Wenger felt that, well though the goalkeeper had performed, "he did not make any exceptional saves".

True, much of what van der Sar did was competent rather than colossal, but that first save was exceptional all the same.

For much of the first half Bergkamp and Pires were inspired, but Henry vainly sought to repeat the finishing touches which had finished Inter. Just before the half-hour Pires glided past Junichi Inamoto and Volz before setting up Henry for a shot which drew another save from van der Sar.

Then Bergkamp saw a sharp half-volley parried by the Fulham goalkeeper, before a 20-yard drive from Henry was pushed wide. Wenger felt that on too many occasions the ball did not arrive in quite the right place for his strikers, and he did have a point.

At the same time, Arsenal were back to their old habit of trying to score through perfection rather than pragmatism. Yesterday their football was strong in the string section but short on percussion.

After half-time van der Sar continued to save and Arsenal continued to miss, the introduction of Nwankwo Kanu simply adding more complications to Wenger's attack.

"We're still undefeated after 14 games," he reminded everybody, but Fulham's morale had achieved a sort of victory all the same.