Tired Arsenal are indebted to Bergkamp

Arsenal 1 Blackburn Rovers

Defeat in this fixture should not, historically, have been terminal to Arsenal's ambitions. Six seasons ago to this very weekend they were beaten 3-1 at home by Blackburn Rovers and dropped to fifth in the League. Their response was to go unbeaten until May, by which time the Premiership was secured and the FA Cup about to follow.

However, in this season's three-cornered Premiership every dropped point threatens to be the one that derails a championship challenge. Having dropped four, to Fulham and Leicester in successive weekends, Arsenal could ill afford to let any more ebb away. Chelsea's shock loss to Bolton the previous day was a warning as well as an opportunity, especially as Rovers, having frequently prospered at Highbury, would not easily be cowed.

So it proved. In an echo of events at Stamford Bridge, Arsenal, supreme in the first half, failed, like Chelsea, to take their chances. Rovers, like Bolton, were able to stay in the game but, unlike their fellow Lancastrians, lacked either a cutting edge or a slice of fortune. When they did score, Marcus Babbel's "goal" was disallowed. It was the correct decision, though, as Graeme Souness said, in other circumstances - "in front of the Kop, the North Bank or the Stretford End" - it might have been given.

Arsenal thus returned to the Premiership summit while Rovers slipped to within a point of the relegation zone. On this evidence they will not remain there. "Our problem this year has been our defending," Souness said. Yesterday the weakness was at the other end. Dwight Yorke was presented with a clear chance inside 30 seconds when Sol Campbell missed Lucas Neill's cross. Yorke, reluctant to shoot with his left, fell off balance as he twisted to use his right and put the ball wide.

Seven minutes from time the Tobagan, scorer of only two League goals this season, shot over from close range after Jens Lehmann had palmed away Craig Short's header from a corner. Yorke's first miss preceded 40 minutes of sustained Arsenal pressure, the second was the culmination of Rovers' spirited response.

In between, two players at either end of their careers stood out. Last season Arsenal negotiated long and hard before granting Dennis Bergkamp a one-year extension to his contract after indications that the Dutchman's gifts were waning. He has responded by flourishing anew. Yesterday he scored the only goal of the game, beautifully taken after 11 minutes, and created a series of other chances for team-mates. He is now beginning to hint at another year's extension and Wenger yesterday intimated that Arsenal would be prepared to listen.

Bergkamp is an Arsenal legend having proved one of the most enduring imports. Kolo Touré, though, arrived as an unknown but is now making a name for himself. Yesterday he not only created Bergkamp's goal but also defended with intelligence. He began the season deputising at centre-half and is now covering at right-back, doing the latter so well that Lauren has not been missed. Lauren could not have bettered the driving run past Vladimir Gresko through which Touré made Bergkamp's goal, or the neat cut-back. Souness might, though, quibble with Neill's lack of support for Gresko, and complain that Bergkamp was left unmarked for too long.

Rovers' defending continued to be patchy with Robert Pires and Patrick Vieira missing good chances, Brad Friedel saving well from Thierry Henry, Pires, after a bewitching run, bending a shot against the far post, and the linesman twice rescuing Rovers with an errant flag.

Rovers hung on and when Fredrik Ljungberg produced another lame finish early in the second period they began to believe they could get something from the match. Arsenal began to feel their midweek Champions League exertions with Vieira, still feeling his way back to fitness, less influential than usual. Shortly before the hour, Babbel thought he had scored when he rose above Touré to head in at the far post. But the referee, Andy D'Urso, spotted him climbing over the Ivorian.

Rovers persevered but Lehmann stretched to deny Barry Ferguson, then Short from Steven Reid's corner. Though Arsenal were still concerned enough to play out time by the corner flags, Rovers threatened no more. "On another day we may have got something," Souness lamented. "We deserved to get more from Fulham and Leicester," admitted Wenger. "But that's sometimes the way it goes."

Arsenal's first team will now have a rest; none of yesterday's 11 starters will be involved at West Bromwich Albion in the Carling Cup quarter-final tomorrow. To judge from yesterday's second half they will welcome the break.

Goal: Bergkamp (11) 1-0.

Arsenal (4-4-2): Lehmann 8; Touré 8, Cygan 6, Campbell 7, Cole 7; Ljungberg 4 (Edu, 84), Vieira 5, Gilberto 5, Pires 6; Bergkamp 8 (Parlour 6, 74), Henry 6. Substitutes not used: Stack (gk), Keown, Kanu.

Blackburn Rovers (4-4-2): Friedel 7; Babbel 6 (Baggio, 81), Todd 5, Short 6, Neill 6; Emerton 7, Tuguy 5, Ferguson 7, Gresko 5 (Reid 7, h-t); Gallagher 4 (Cole 5, 56), Yorke 4. Substitutes not used: Enkelman (gk), Flitcroft.

Referee: A D'Urso (Billericay) 5.

Booked: Arsenal: Gilberto, Cygan. Blackburn: Gresko, Ferguson, Babbel, Todd.

Man of the match: Bergkamp.

Attendance: 37,677.