Chelsea 0 Arsenal 0
There was a small step towards the title and a long look into next season. Though Chelsea know now that they need a maximum of five more points to be champions, they will also be pondering the inconvenience that Arsenal caused them. Arsène Wenger is evidently progressing in his readjustment of the Highbury squad.
A clean sheet here is one sign of improvement for them, but there is as much encouragement for Arsenal in the way they held their own. This was an uncommon day when Chelsea could not break a deadlock. There should be no distress over that and one person, in particular, had already prepared himself for an inconclusive evening.
If his programme notes were any indication, Jose Mourinho believed this fixture to be slightly anti-climatic. He shook his head over a championship that had been much less competitive than he had envisaged.
Having once marked this game as potential decider, the Chelsea manager reclassified it as lacking a little in "emotion and spice".
Presumably he wanted his men only to stay in the relaxed frame of mind that ought to have been a fringe benefit of an 11-point lead in the Premiership. Mourinho, however, was silent over one of most obvious and important factors in this engagement.
Arsenal are a doubly vengeful club. They are hurt by the all but inevitable loss of their title and stung at least as much by the assumption that they are no longer to be ranked alongside. Until the comparatively recent Champions League quarter-final last year this squad had, after all, beaten Chelsea whenever necessary.
Arsenal started the match as if it were a mere formality to turn back time. Once more they were quick of pass and thought as Chelsea looked leaden. The confident enterprise was visible immediately in a well-paced pass that Robert Pires stroked down the left and after three minutes the Frenchman hit the bar.
Lauren crossed from the right and José Antonio Reyes's challenge was enough to invite Pires to lash the drive that came back off the woodwork.
Mourinho might have blessed his luck, but he was more probably cursing the ill fortune that brought injury to Paulo Ferreira, a defender who is starting to seem irreplaceable.
After being omitted for the Champions League tie in Munich, Glen Johnson received another opportunity to prove himself a worthy alternative at right-back. He was, none the less, beaten in the air as Reyes, utterly unknown for his heading power, delivered the knock-down for that Pires effort.
Pires, too, had a further opening in the 10th minute when a John Terry clearance took a ricochet and fell to him on the right, but his finish flew wide of the far post.
The squad may also have noted that they had enjoyed a week's rest while Arsenal had only four days to complete an audit of all their bruises from the FA Cup semi-final win over Blackburn. For a while, Chelsea were to bring growing powers steadily to bear.
Ashley Cole, accused of taking part in unauthorised talks about a move to Stamford Bridge, may have felt much too well acquainted with Chelsea as Didier Drogba, in particular, came pounding into the left-back's territory. The forward is fresher and more sure of himself than at any other stage of the season.
There was every indication, too, that he could put Chelsea in command. In the 31st minute, the poised Claude Makelele struck a diagonal pass towards Damien Duff on the left and he ferried the ball across to the right, where Drogba broke through to fire against the legs of the advancing Jens Lehmann.
The Ivory Coast striker relished a more adroit build-up three minutes later when he was set up for a run that carried him across Philippe Senderos to play a cut-back. Joe Cole was unable to connect with it properly.
Though the outcome was still in doubt, Arsenal, relieved as they might have been then, had shown that they would not collapse defensively on this ground as Barcelona and Bayern Munich had recently done.
CHELSEA:Cech, Johnson, Terry, Gallas, Ricardo Carvalho, Cole (Tiago 79), Lampard, Makelele, Duff (Kezman 85), Gudjohnsen (Jarosik 90), Drogba. Subs Not Used: Cudicini, Huth. Booked: Cole.
ARSENAL:Lehmann, Cole, Toure, Senderos, Lauren, Silva, Fabregas (Aliadiere 81), Vieira, Pires, Bergkamp (Van Persie 78), Reyes. Subs Not Used: Edu, Campbell, Almunia. Booked: Vieira, Pires, Reyes.
Referee:S Bennett (Kent).