Jaded Arsenal pay a dear price

Arsenal 1 Birmingham City 1:Arsenal took their eye off the ball here and it cost them the leadership of the Premier League. The failure of Arsene Wenger's attack to break down a solid, disciplined Birmingham City defence was punished by Gary O'Connor's header just after half-time, which answered Emmanuel Adebayor's penalty midway through the first half, and was subsequently compounded by Manchester United's six-goal demolition of Newcastle.

Now Arsenal have to play catch-up and United do not look in the mood to be caught. Not that Arsenal's recuperative powers are underestimated. They lost the lead on St Stephen's Day when a scoreless draw at Portsmouth coincided with United's 4-1 win at Sunderland but regained it three days later with a 4-1 victory at Everton while Alex Ferguson's team were losing at West Ham. This game of leapfrog surely has plenty of legs-for-all left in it.

On Saturday, though, Arsenal looked collectively jaded. "It was very frustrating," said Wenger. "We thought it was going to be too easy but we didn't create enough overall. We were not sharp enough and they defended well, it was as simple as that. Today we lost two points we shouldn't have lost."

While Arsenal had lost Robin van Persie and Tomas Rosicky to a virus as well as Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue to the African Cup of Nations, the burgeoning strength of their reserves probably made this a mere mitigating circumstance.

The proof was that the team had an off-day, none more so than Cesc Fabregas, who created the occasional opening with frugally delivered passes but was not the dominant force he has been. Before half-time the industry and vision of Aleskandr Hleb promised to make up the difference but even he faded by the end.

Arsenal might have had a happier afternoon had they not wasted some early scoring opportunities. Eduardo's recent vein of form did not extend to accepting a clear chance provided by Hleb's precise centre. His firm downward header was kept out by Maik Taylor, but the goalkeeper was grateful that the ball came straight at him.

The goal Arsenal did get came after a neat one-two between Eduardo and Hleb. As the Brazilian-born Croatia striker accepted the return pass the ball became momentarily trapped between his feet, allowing Stephen Kelly time to make a lunging tackle back. He managed to knock the ball away but in doing so made contact with Eduardo who duly went down. Referees invariably give penalties in these circumstances and Adebayor was not complaining as he squeezed the ball past Taylor's fingertips.

The Emirates crowd settled back for a routine win but on this occasion the opposition were more roused by falling behind than were Arsenal by taking the lead. Alex McLeish hopes to use the transfer window to add some quality to his squad. He will do well to improve the character and determination of his team's football once they had drawn level in the 48th minute. Sebastian Larsson's corner evaded all the defenders' heads and O'Connor's header was helped into the net by a deflection.

The expected siege ensued, but to their credit Birmingham did not acquire a siege mentality. In fact, McLeish was bringing on attacking players, Mikael Forssell and Gary McSheffrey, late in the game in the hope of grabbing what would have been Birmingham's first win at Arsenal since 1957. As it was, they deserved their draw and none more so than their central defenders, Liam Ridgewell, who was outstanding, and Rafael Schmitz .

"They sniffed the danger and snuffed it out most of the time," said McLeish. Certainly Arsenal had lost the scent.