Arsenal did not always possess the fluency of champions at the Reebok Stadium last night, but Bolton Wanderers became the latest side to bow to their power, organisation and resilience. A spectacular goal by Christopher Wreh early in the second half left them three points behind Manchester United with two games in hand. The race is well and truly joined.

Even the dismissal of Martin Keown, for a second bookable offence, could not shake their defensive solidity. Romantics might talk longingly about "the old one-two", but Arsenal much prefer the old 1-0.

Arsenal have now danced to Arsene Wenger's tune for nearly two seasons, and the George Graham era is the stuff of varnished trophy cabinets, but when it comes to the final stages of a championship challenge, little changes: Arsenal still prefer to grind. This was their fourth successive 1-0 win.

Seaman, returned to Arsenal's goal since last Saturday, hardly had his confidence bolstered by his first involvement. Alan Thompson's ambitions looked excessive as he fired in a low free-kick from 30 yards, but the ball squirmed from Seaman's grasp at the foot of his near post.

Throughout the first half, Arsenal's thoughts rarely strayed from survival. Lacking Ian Wright and Dennis Bergkamp, they mustered only one worthwhile attack by the interval, Patrick Vieira's slick ball into the left of the area finding Emmanuel Petit, whose pass was hit over by Nicolas Anelka.

Arsenal were becoming twitchy as Bolton tore down their right flank, where Gilles Grimandi was finding Jimmy Phillips and Thompson a handful. Adams's rising acid levels, followed by a booking for Keown, suggested that the centre would not buckle so readily.

Marc Overmars never seemed to shake off the after-effects of a crashing second-minute challenge, for which Neil Cox was booked, and it was the substitution of the Dutchman for Michael Hughes that paid immediate dividends for Arsenal at the start of the second half.

Hughes's first touch, a cross from the left, slid across goal with Anelka failing to make contact; the second contribution from the England Under-21 international gave Arsenal the lead two minutes into the half.

If Wreh's finish, a swivel and drive into the roof of the net from 20 yards, was stunning enough, his celebrations were even more striking, two backward somersaults that somewhat upstaged Wright's favourite trick of running around blindly with a shirt over his head. Perhaps Wreh will one day prove a Wright substitute after all.

Bolton immediately exchanged a defender, Andy Todd, for a winger, their deadline signing John Salako, but it was a brighter Arsenal they were now dealing with. Mark Fish, for one, seemed oblivious to the fact that Bolton had switched to a back four and, as if imagining that Todd was still on the field, allowed Anelka a clear run at goal that might have proved terminal.

Then came what for both clubs threatened to be fateful: the dismissal of Keown, for a second bookable offence, as he collided with Nathan Blake on the left, and a ruling by the referee Keith Burge, after consultation with a linesman, that the offence had occurred outside the area. There might have been more justice had the decision been the other way round.

Keown's first bite at Blake arguably was outside the box, but it was a moot point as to whether he would have been penalised had he not then connected again with Blake inside the area.

Even before Bolton's free-kick predictably came to naught, Arsenal bolstered their defence with the introduction of Steve Bould. As if emphasising that nothing had changed, he was immediately booked for clattering into Per Frandsen from behind.

Bolton, stung by the imagined injustice, tore back again, but Thompson's wicked left-foot drive was pushed aside by Seaman. Even he was beginning to look more like his own self.

Bolton: Branagan, Cox, Fish, Thompson, Phillips (Johansen 86), Bergsson, Sheridan, Todd (Salako 52), Frandsen, Blake, Holdsworth. Subs Not Used: Ward, Fairclough, Taylor. Booked: Cox.

Arsenal: Seaman, Winterburn, Vieira, Adams, Anelka (Platt 86), Overmars (Hughes 45), Wreh (Bould 64), Keown, Parlour, Petit, Grimandi. Subs Not Used: Manninger, Garde. Sent Off: Keown (65). Booked: Keown, Bould. Goals: Wreh 47.

Referee: K W Burge (Tonypandy).