English FA Premiership Middlesbrough 2 Arsenal 1: Around the time last Friday that Arsène Wenger was jokingly calling Arsenal "paradise", when referring to Thierry Henry's contractual situation, news came in from Moscow that the Russian government was on the verge of a deal with one of Roman Abramovich's companies that will make the Chelsea owner close on £8 billion richer.
Around 8pm on Saturday, as Wenger was about to take questions on this worrying defeat, Julia Baptist was scoring his first goal for Real Madrid. As Wenger sat down, clearly vexed, these three events felt pretty adjacent. Doing his best to suppress anger, but not succeeding, Wenger said of his club: "We are not a prisoner to names." It was a declaration of a football philosophy, and admirable, but with a second defeat of the season Arsenal had just fallen nine points behind Chelsea.
Wenger knows that every time this happens the name of Patrick Vieira will crop up a as will the names of those unsigned. Here, Wenger had no Henry or Sol Campbell, both injured a while Cesc Fabregas and Philippe Senderos were on the bench.
Henry's groin injury means he will also miss Wednesday's Champions League game against FC Than. Two seasons ago, when Arsenal went through an entire season undefeated, Campbell played 35 of the 38 games, Vieira 29 and Henry 37. Any team would miss such a spine.
On Saturday evening Pascal Cygan, Mathew Flamini and Jose Antonio Reyes were the replacement backbone. During the first 40 minutes, when only the woodwork and Mark Schwarzer kept Arsenal out, Wenger's contention that "names" do not matter could barely be faulted. Wenger's pass-and-flow philosophy was overwhelming Middlesbrough. But after Aucuba Aiyegbeni had profited from a small ricochet off Kolo Toure to score his first Middlesbrough goal, Arsenal had a problem a one not of ability but of stature.
Until Aucuba struck, Reyes and Alexander Hleb had teased Middlesbrough with their passing and imagination. "We got away with it," was Gareth Southgate's honest assessment of the visitors' superiority. Reyes had a shot after 25 seconds and hit the post three minutes later.
Middlesbrough, beaten here 3-0 by Charlton in their last game, fidgeted. Fabio Rochemback, who was to be the best player in the second half, was having a fearful introduction.
But Yakubu's goal settled the home side and just before the hour they had the decisive second. It came from an Arsenal attack that petered out in a weak Hleb penalty claim, then from an Arsenal mistake at the back. Massimo Maccarone had not scored for Middlesbrough for 17 months having spent last season on loan in Italy. But the striker remembered why he had become an Italian international to steer the ball past Jens Lehmann. Arsenal's response was fractured and fractious.
Fabregas came off the bench to became the ninth Arsenal yellow card in two games. Reyes eventually scored, but in the 90th minute. Soon after Wenger described the team performance as "unacceptable".
* Guardian Service
