Arsenal head into this match in first placed, one point ahead of ManUre. It's a tight field, with about 6 or 7 teams all within reasonable shouting distance of the top.
The table Teams Pld Pts Arsenal 18 36 Man United 18 35 Chelsea 18 34 Everton 18 32 Liverpool 18 31 Newcastle 17 29 Tottenham 18 28 Soton 18 27 Middlesbro 18 26 Blackburn 18 24 Charlton 18 24 Man City 18 24 Birmingham 18 23 Fulham 18 22 A Villa 18 22 Leeds 18 20 Sunderland 18 17 West Brom 18 15 Bolton 17 14 West Ham 18 13
Starters and other stuff Martin Tyler is your match commentator... It's a dark day at Highbury. The floodlights are on and have been on for several hours. Arsenal Seaman - 700th league game Cole Keown Pires Ljungberg Wiltord Lauren Henry van Bronckhorst Gilberto Campbell Boro Schwarzer Queudrue Ehiogu Southgate Boateng Nemeth Boksic Greening Geremi Parnaby Wilkshire
The bench and injuries Shaaban Jeffers Luzhny Kanu Toure Parlour pulled out during warmups with an injury. No Dennis, no Cygan, no Vieira. Steve Dunn is the ref, the same blind bat who missed the two Henchoz handballs in the FA Cup final a few years ago.
Kickoff Arsenal in red, Boro in white, the visitors kick off and move from right to left in the first half.
2nd minute First Freddie, then Gilberto take a couple of cracks at goal as Arsenal have the first half-chances.
3rd minute Geremi on the right with a nifty move that beats Ashley Cole. Boksic scuffs the cross, though. Tyler informs us that Lauren has written an article for the game program that recounts his superstitions, including one where he has to put a coin - facing the right way - in his sock.
7th minute In lieu of any game action, I'll inform you that Arsenal played and beat Boro 3 times last year, including an FA Cup semi-final win. The play on the pitch is sluggish, with the fans apparently feeling the same way.
8th minute Geremi's long free kick is bobbled but then immediately grabbed by Seaman on the goal line. Lazy pundits everywhere scramble to pull out their Seaman horror stories.
11th minute GVB, set up by Pires, lashes a howler just wide of the goal from about 30 yards. Left-footed, of course.
13th minute Terrific chance for Arsenal as GVB's free kick falls to Wiltord's foot at the left edge of the 6-yard box. His left-footer is very high and very wide and goes out for a goal kick.
14th minute Confusion in the Arsenal defense gives Greening a sight of goal, but Campbell comes across to knock the ball out for a corner. Keown heads it out, but it's another corner. Keown looks like he took a knock going for the header and Gary Lewin is out to take a look. From the other side, the short corner is headed away, Boro regain control, and a pass into the box is knocked away for a 3rd Boro corner. Finally, Gilberto heads away.
18th minute Lauren's cross deflected but reaches Henry at the edge of the box, but his off-balance shot sails out of play for a goal kick.
20th minute Confusion in the Boro defense gives Arsenal possession. Wiltord cuts inside and takes another try with the left foot but it sails wide for another GK. Crowd shots indicate an abundance of fans wearing Santa hats.
22nd minute Boateng is down after receiving a bump from GVB. Doesn't look like GVB caught him, but he forced Boateng to step awkwardly. Joseph Desire Job - only weeks after cracking his skull - is warming up on the sidelines. Boro make the change in the 24th minute.
25th minute Henry picks up an innocent loose ball outside the box and sends a dipping ball that Schwarzer grabs.
27th minute Boro counter after a spell of Arsenal possession. Boksic lumbers in from the left but Campbell comes across to knock the ball away.
28th minute Pires with a glancing header from a Cole cross but it goes wide. The Gunners starting to win the possession battle.
31st minute Yellow card given to Ashley Cole for a challenge on Geremi. Looks like the right call, as he scissored Geremi while missing the ball. By the way, Ashley turned 22 yesterday.
34th minute Greening with a terrible giveaway that leads to a Wiltord shot that's deflected out for a corner. Pires takes it, Campbell gets his head on it but it goes just wide.
37th minute Arsenal get plenty of touches all around the box, but never get a real good crack at goal. I'm not frustrated - more hopeful, really.
38th minute Probably the best Arsenal chance of the game, as Wiltord makes an incisive pass to Ljungberg who, 13 yards out, scuffs his shot into Schwarzer's hands.
41st minute Campbell misjudges a long boot upfield and Cole has to come across to knock it out for a throw.
43rd minute Greening, who's had a defensive nightmare, gets carded for fouling Cole just as Ashley was running past him. From the free kick Keown puts his header wide after Schwarzer missed the cross. Arsenal are getting closer...