There was one hour on the clock, four goals in the Middlesbrough net and Arsenal were on the march again. Ray Parlour had the ball on the edge of the Boro area and was confronted by a couple of by then exceedingly indecisive defenders. Parlour swatted the ball nonchalantly into space with the outside of his right foot, leaving the Boro players Vladimir Kinder and Dean Gordon unsure whether to make the first move for it.
By the time they had thought about it Lee Dixon was in possession and measuring up a cross to Nwankwo Kanu lurking near the penalty spot. Duly the ball was centred, but it was at an unpromising height, Kanu had a marker, and besides he was side-on to goal. Maybe he would lay it off.
No. What Kanu did was rush at the speeding ball, accept it first time and initiate a sort of airborne Cruyff turn all in the one liquid move. With a flick cum drag-back he dispatched a back-heel volley into the bottom corner. It probably had back-spin on it. It was the kind of goal Barnsley's club poet would write a sonnet about.
Even Middlesbrough fans would read it, judging by their uncontainable burst of automatic applause. Their spontaneous standing ovation was an echo of one heard three days earlier in Turin, from Juventus fans as Manchester United's players departed the stage of their triumph.
If "follow that" was the United message, Arsenal did. And it could have been better, Marc Overmars, Dixon and the substitute Kaba Diawara all missed straightforward chances, although Middlesbrough could say that Hamilton Ricard hit the woodwork and that David Seaman made two good saves before Alun Armstrong's late header gave them an empty consolation.
Empty for Boro anyway. Though it could be significant for Arsenal. This morning last week Arsene Wenger's team lay four points behind Alex Ferguson's and with a goal difference inferior by 10. Since then Arsenal have beaten Wimbledon 5-1, Boro 6-1 and this morning they are one point ahead of United and have reduced the goal difference deficit to one. United's margin for error has been sliced, Arsenal's timing in topping the league for the first time this season is impressive.
"They didn't like it," Wenger said of his defenders' reaction to that late Armstrong header, but it was said with a smile. Ten days previously Wenger had seen his side lose an epic FA Cup semi-final replay and the cumulative experience of that, the Juventus match and Arsenal's performance here left the Frenchman drooling at the Englishness of it all.
Calling England "unique", he said: "I was very happy Man United went there (Turin) and won - for the credibility of English football. It shows to all Europe that the best football is back in England."
Wenger added "maybe" to that sentence, a noticeable kink in his vocabulary but an appropriate addition to an argument in which his doubters would say: "Yeah, but explain Middlesbrough."
There they sit one year after promotion, seventh in a table that has a teak top and papier mache legs. Boro have now conceded more goals than they have scored and Gary Pallister offered his perspective: "Some of Arsenal's football was breathtaking. That shows the divide in the Premiership; Arsenal and Man United are far away."
Steve Vickers's lunge at Nicolas Anelka provided Overmars with an early penalty and when Anelka ran on to Patrick Vieira's lush pass half an hour later the finish was emphatic. Seconds before half-time Kanu got his first, superbly side-stepping Gordon before lancing Mark Schwarzer, and Vieira produced a beguiling fourth after the interval.
Kanu's exercise in trigonometry came next before Anelka hit the sixth, a muscular thump past the dazzled Schwarzer.
Middlesbrough: Schwarzer, Cooper (Kinder 37), Pallister, Vickers, Stockdale (Summerbell 61), Mustoe, Maddison (Armstrong 71), Townsend, Gordon, Deane, Ricard. Subs Not Used: Beresford, Cambell. Booked: Ricard, Summerbell. Goals: Armstrong 87.
Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Bould, Adams, Winterburn, Parlour, Vieira, Petit (Hughes 86), Overmars (Diawara 70), Anelka, Kanu (Vivas 79). Subs Not Used: Lukic, Grimandi. Goals: Overmars 4 pen, Anelka 38, Kanu 45, Vieira 58, Kanu 60, Anelka 78. Referee: M Riley (Leeds).
