Gallas comes back to haunt Blues

The Arsenal captain cashed in on an uncharacteristic error from Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech on the stroke of half-time to head home the only goal of a pulsating match which proved conclusively that Arsene Wenger's men have what it takes to stay the course in what is turning into the most intriguing of Premier League title races.

The victory took Arsenal back to the top, a position they had relinquished for a couple of hours following Manchester United's triumph against Liverpool at Anfield.

But, in a match which contained nine bookings, four for Arsenal and five for Chelsea, they were made to battle all the way.

Arsenal's Manuel Almunia was surprisingly the busier goalkeeper in the first half. A deflected shot from Shaun Wright-Phillips saw the Spaniard make a spectacular flying save and a savagely swerving 25-yarder from Andriy Shevchenko saw him add another equally effective parry to his portfolio.

Emmanuel Eboue was booked for a lunging challenge on Terry, which left the Chelsea defender hobbling from what was feared to be a broken metatarsal, though Avram Grant insisted this was not the case. Terry bravely attempted to continue but it was clear lasting damage had been done and he was replaced in the 38th minute by Tal Ben Haim.

And with half-time looming Cesc Fabregas' swinging corner should have been an easy catch for Cech but somehow he contrived to get underneath the ball and succeeded only in waving it by to see the unmarked Gallas head the ball into the empty net for his third league goal of the season.

Grant took off Claude Makelele and threw on Claudio Pizarro in search of a cutting edge and Joe Cole found his way into the referee's notebook for a cynical foul on Eboue which saw the Arsenal man carried off on a stretcher.

True, Shaun Wright-Phillips should have scored when he skewed wide from three yards but Robin van Persie, on for Eboue, might have extended Arsenal's lead if he had not fired over following the most flowing move of the match.

The finale was truly frantic. Van Persie had the ball in the net only to be ruled offside, while a thunderous injury-time free-kick from Shevchenko was turned over by Almunia. Then right at the death Fabregas should have scored but was immediately booked for a lunge into the back of Ashley Cole.