Arsenal 1 Birmingham City 0: Arsene Wenger has said two bookmakers have taken a "big risk" by paying out already on Chelsea winning the Premiership this season but those betting firms will not be losing any sleep about the thought of Arsenal overhauling the leaders just yet. Wenger's team got the victory they craved yesterday but needed a late deflected shot to sneak past Birmingham's 10 men.

While Arsenal will note that the visitors' goalkeeper Maik Taylor was excellent before Robin van Persie's effort bobbled over him, making several fine saves including one from a Robert Pires penalty, it had become increasingly difficult to envisage Wenger's players breaking down the Birmingham defence.

They created only one notable chance between the 55th and 81st minutes, when the substitute Van Persie scored. It seemed luck would be needed to defeat Taylor and that was right.

Passages of Arsenal's play were slick, not least when Jose Antonio Reyes, Freddie Ljungberg and Cesc Fabregas were involved, but Birmingham had been the better team before Kenny Cunningham was sent off for fouling Ljungberg as the Swede broke for goal in the 24th minute. The visitors had passed more cleanly and looked marginally the likelier scorers.

Arsenal were just beginning to find some menace when the red card turned the flow of the game.

Almost incessant Arsenal attacking followed and, on the balance of possession and chances, it was impossible to argue with a home win, but Taylor can feel particularly hard done by.

Stephen Clemence, off whom the decisive goal deflected, also impressed and Damien Johnson did well beside him in central midfield, where he started and finished, having a less successful spell in between at right-back.

Matthew Upson and Olivier Tebily gradually got the measure of Arsenal in central defence.

Wenger, such a lover of the beautiful game, was hardly complaining at the manner of this victory. "Today I'm happy to secure a scrappy win," he said. "Only that kind of goal could beat (Taylor)."

It must have moderated the manager's disappointment at learning Thierry Henry does not want to discuss a contract extension until after the end of the season.

Wenger had wanted Henry to agree a new deal by the new year and hoped to exploit the striker's current injury to hold talks but Henry said in his programme notes he will wait until summer before clarifying his future. By then he will have just 12 months on his contract.

"I want to concentrate on football, help my team and focus on winning trophies, rather than worry about contracts," he explained, adding: "At the end of the season we will talk about it and look to sort something out. I will speak to the boss, ask him about things, but my mind isn't on that at the moment.

"Obviously, though, I will sit down with the boss and the board and sort it out."

As this game progressed, Arsenal must have wished Henry were available. Reyes did a good deal right with his running on and off the ball but could never find the touch to beat Taylor and, as Birmingham dropped deeper in the second half, Arsenal struggled to find a killer ball.

They had made plenty of chances. Early in the second half Taylor saved fantastically from Ljungberg at the end of a lightning break and shortly afterwards he pushed a Pires shot on to a post. By those standards his stop from Pires's penalty, awarded when Johnson tripped Ljungberg, was almost routine.

Taylor was distraught when a Van Persie shot he had covered flicked off Clemence and went over his prone body after Julian Gray failed to clear.

"He knows he's had possibly his best game ever, apart from the one in Northern Ireland (against England last month), which we won't go into," said his manager Steve Bruce. "He's had the game of his life and unfortunately it's gone like that."

Bruce's players had begun well, Emile Heskey seeing a shot scrape under Jens Lehmann only for Ashley Cole to clear off the line. Their high-energy, pressing game forced Arsenal to be slick to find space in which to play and often the home side's passing broke down.

Their life was made far easier once Cunningham went for tripping Ljungberg.

"The referee is right but I'm sure he only wanted to give a yellow," Bruce said. "With the directives he's given he's not allowed to."

Wenger agreed the spectacle had been ruined: "I would have loved to see the game 11 versus 11 because we would have seen a much more interesting game."

With Birmingham forced into a defensive shell, they rarely tested Arsenal. Heskey had a weak shot saved and, when Tebily headed past Lehmann, an equaliser was ruled out because Jermaine Pennant's corner was adjudged to have swung out of play.