Manchester United may already be hearing the sound of some distant, though familiar guns. Arsenal, who were the champions' closest pursuers in the table until early November, are again closing in on the leaders.
Although yesterday's comfortable, if combustible, victory at Highbury over Ruud Gullit's drifting Chelsea didn't improve Arsenal's league position, it did strengthen their challenge. The two goals from Stephen Hughes have brought them to within six points of United, with a match in hand. They are now only one point behind Chelsea, Liverpool, and Blackburn Rovers.
With all three of Manchester United's immediate rivals beaten over the weekend, and their lead at the top increased to five points by a scrambled 1-1 draw at home to struggling Bolton Wanderers, there would seem to be something in the theory that events are conspiring to bring Old Trafford its fifth championship in six seasons.
Certainly Chelsea left Highbury convinced that someone up there did not like them very much, although the principal object of their displeasure was the thoroughly earthly figure of Dermot Gallagher, the Banbury referee. After 12 minutes, with Arsenal already a goal up, Gallagher was content to caution Steve Bould after the defender had pulled Gianluca Vialli back by his shirt as the Italian surged on to an aberrant back-header from Emmanuel Petit.
In the present climate most referees would have sent Bould off, and remembering how a Coventry defender, Paul Williams, was recently dismissed by Steve Lodge for making minimal contact with Dennis Bergkamp in a similar position at Highfield Road, Gallagher's decision appeared perverse, to say the least. Yesterday, Gullit was careful not to echo the Coventry manager Gordon Strachan's tirade against Hodge but he made no bones about his feelings.
"Vialli was going straight for goal," he insisted, "Bould has to be sent off, there is no other solution. If you make a foul like that in any country in the world it's a sending-off. But the referee wants to do it his way and this is not on. If he had given that decision in the Nou Camp he would not have been allowed to go out."
An attempt by Arsenal's manager, Arsene Wenger, to throw doubt on the issue was not convincing. "Vialli is very experienced," he argued. "He waited for the foul. Certainly Bould pushed him but I did not think it was a red card because Gilles Grimandi was in front of Vialli when he was fouled."
This was the reason Gallagher gave for not sending Bould off. Maybe Grimandi was covering by the time Vialli went down but he would surely not have got across in time had the Arsenal defender not grabbed hold of the Chelsea man's shirt in the first place.
Chelsea were on shakier ground for advancing this incident as the reason why they lost. After all, Gullit's team had failed to beat a Leeds United side reduced to nine men at Stamford Bridge in midDecember and yesterday their attack showed barely more imagination than it had done in that game.
Unwisely, they allowed their indignation at Bould's continued presence to overrule their judgment. Until half-time they seemed set on little else than taking on Arsenal in a rough-house, and no team with any sense ever sets out to hustle the arch-hustlers.
The truth was that an Arsenal side unbeaten in 10 matches were the masters of Chelsea in most areas. Gullit's midfield seldom got to grips with Stephen Hughes, Petit and the outstanding Ray Parlour and hard though Mark Hughes worked up front he was frequently closed down by Arsenal defenders working in twos and threes.
The opening goal, after three minutes, followed a mistake by Frank Leboeuf, who failed to cut out a nod-down from Dennis Bergkamp and compounded the error by losing his footing. Nicolas Anelka then saw one shot beaten out by Ed Goey and another blocked by Laurent Charvet, whose clearance was thumped back into the net by Stephen Hughes.
A lot of undistinguished tetchy football followed until four minutes before half-time, when Adams headed back Bergkamp's freekick from the byline and Hughes's alert head glanced the ball past De Goey.
Altogether Gallagher cautioned seven players - three from Arsenal, four from Chelsea. Bergkamp's booking, for catching Wise off the ball in stoppage time, rather summed up the mood of the afternoon. But Arsenal are again serious title pretenders all the same.
Referring to the Bould incident Wenger said the incident had been indicative of a general increase in the more dubious "foreign practices", although, as he pointed out: "The English are quick learners."
ARSENAL: Manninger, Winterburn, Bould, Adams, Anelka (Wright 69), Bergkamp, Overmars (Platt 76), Parlour, Petit, Grimandi (Dixon 69), Hughes. Subs Not Used: Luis Boa Morte, Lukic. Booked: Bould, Parlour, Bergkamp. Goals: Hughes 4, 42.
CHELSEA: De Goey, Petrescu (Granville 46), Leboeuf, Vialli (Zola 62), M Hughes, Wise, Duberry, Le Saux, Di Matteo, Newton (Flo 80), Chalvet. Subs Not Used: Hitchcock, P Hughes. Booked: Vialli, Leboeuf, Wise, Di Matteo. Referee: D J Gallagher (Banbury).
