English FA Premiership/Arsenal 1 Manchester City 0: Even the best teams sometimes have to settle for scruffy victories. So do teams like Arsenal, who in the Premiership, if not the Champions League, are beginning to forget what best is.
Saturday was Arsene Wenger's birthday and at times his players appeared set on stepping on the cake. Robert Pires and Thierry Henry had brought along a party trick but cocked it up, and but for a hair's-breadth offside decision, which ruled out a late header by Darius Vassell, Manchester City would probably have cracked Arsenal's perfect home record.
Beyond the 1930s baroque stands at Highbury the new stadium beckons. Such was the unconvincing nature of Saturday's performance, following a 2-1 defeat at West Bromwich, that some fans may have found themselves harbouring the thought that Arsenal could move into their new home without Henry and with no place in the Champions League.
If Henry's long-term plans are uncertain, so is the notion that the likes of Charlton, Tottenham and Wigan are simply keeping the places warm for Arsenal and Manchester United just below Chelsea. Like United, Arsenal are having to make do and mend because of a lengthening list of injuries, yet with Henry starting a game for the first time since late August, they might have been expected to make a better fist of breaking down City's tight-knit defence.
While Henry restored pace and vision to Wenger's attack, Dennis Bergkamp had difficulty breaking free of City's stifling cover, and Sylvain Distin was particularly adept at tracking the Dutchman down. Robert Pires often found Danny Mills and Joey Barton barring his way on the left, forcing him to come inside, with the result that the attack became lop-sided.
With Cesc Fabregas, Gilberto Silva and Mathieu Flamini frequently entangled in Manchester City's packed midfield, the situation cried for the sort of surging runs with which Patrick Vieira used to scatter opponents.
When, on the quarter-hour, Pires scorned an opportunity carefully set up by Henry, wafting the ball over from close range, it seemed this was merely a prelude to a comfortable home victory. But Arsenal found it increasingly difficult to create further chances, and when they did take the lead just past the hour, City were starting to come out of their shell.
Henry, sent clear by Kolo Toure, saw David James coming and then made sure he went down as the goalkeeper stretched for the ball.
"It looked like he dived over James's arms," said Stuart Pearce, the Manchester City manager. "My players are disappointed, but Henry is a clever player."
Too clever by half, as it transpired. Pires duly walloped the penalty past James, and 11 minutes later had the chance to score from another after Stephen Jordan had brought down Bergkamp.
This time, however, Pires did not shoot but stood over the ball and tried to tap it forward, intending Henry to nip in and score. In fact, the ball barely moved, Henry could not get at it and Mills hoofed it away. Referee Steve Riley awarded City a free-kick, judging Pires had touched the ball twice when in fact he had barely touched it once.
Henry had thought it up during training, remembering an incident in 1982 when Johan Cruyff took a penalty for Ajax and exchanged passes with Jesper Olsen before scoring. "But it wasn't my idea to make Robert's leg go numb," he said later.
It was a bit like deciding to sink a 12-inch putt snooker-fashion and rimming the hole, the debate over the legality obscuring the fact that it was a dumb thing to do in the first place. But as Henry said: "We shouldn't forget football is an entertainment."
Certainly Saturday's prosaic proceedings were enhanced by Pires's folly.
Distin, on the other hand, felt the incident "was a little bit disrespectful to us".
Yet his manager was philosophical. "When you try something different from the norm in football you will be accused of arrogance," Pearce said, "but you could say it was a training ground ploy that didn't come off."
