Adams back in saddle

SIMON TURNBULL Middlesbrough 0 Arsenal

According to Pat Rice, the caretaker in the visitors' dressing-room, Tony Adams was "like a stallion, caged up and waiting to be set free" as kick-off approached down by the Riverside on Saturday. When he was released from his pitch-side reins, the locals predictably pilloried Arsenal's club captain as a donkey.

But in the 60 minutes of his return to the Gunners' stable, eight days after confessing to being an alcoholic, Highbury's old faithful provided proof positive that he remains a thoroughbred.

That much was evident from his first touch, a diving header which thwarted Nick Barmby. From the 30th minute, when he replaced Lee Dixon, to the final whistle, the assured Adams was the defensive rock on which victory was founded.

Granted, they already had their two-goal cushion by then - courtesy of the kind of defending which made Arsenal's, as Rice put it, "an art.''

Middlesbrough's artistic impression was of the statuesque variety when John Hartson was allowed to lob over Alan Miller in the second minute. Steve Vickers was just plain slap dash with the attempted interception which merely gifted Ian Wright his 151st goal as a Gunner.

That Italian master of the finishing school, Fabrizio Ravanelli, twice brushed the woodwork in the opening half-an-hour. But it was a measure of the stability Adams brought to the Arsenal defence that Middlesbrough were denied even a sight of the paintwork on Miller's goal thereafter.

Threatening advances by Juninho (twice) and Emerson were abruptly halted by crunching tackles, the latter drawing a yellow card. In fact, in the hour he spent on the pitch, Adams came closer to hitting the target than Middlesbrough, scorers of 18 goals in their first four home games. He shot against a post in the 53rd minute.

Rice, commenting on speculation that Adams might join George Graham at Leeds, insisted: "Tony won't leave Arsenal - for George Graham or anyone. I think he'll stay until he retires."

Goals: Hartson (2) 0-1; Wright (26) 0-2.

Middlesbrough (5-2-1-2): Miller; Cox, Whyte, Vickers (Stamp, 63), Whelan, Fleming; Mustoe (Branco, 89), Emerson (Moore, 71); Juninho; Barmby, Ravanelli. Substitutes not used: Hendrie, Roberts (gk).

Arsenal (5-3-2): Seaman; Dixon (Adams, 30), Keown, Linighan, Bould, Winterburn; Viera, Platt, Merson; Wright, Hartson. Substitutes not used: Marshall, Shaw, Rose, Lukic (gk)

Referee: M Bodenham (East Looe, Cornwall).

Bookings: Arsenal: Viera, Keown, Adams.

Man of the match: Adams.

Attendance: 29,629.