Gunners grind out win

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The breakthrough, however, came in the 82nd minute, David James flapping at Denilson's free-kick and Gallas rising to head the ball into the Portsmouth net.

The win was barely deserved but it prompted a wave of Arsenal attacks as they at last took control of the game.

Arsenal appeared miles away from Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea and if Wenger does not do some serious business in the January transfer window things may well stay that way. As it is the result leaves Arsenal 10 points adrift of league leaders Liverpool and still hoping.

Portsmouth could easily have gone in at half-time with the lead. The ball was swung over from the right by David Nugent and Peter Crouch jumped higher than Gallas to send the ball against Manuel Almunia's post. It was the strike of the match.

Emmanuel Adebayor had an equally good opening which he too squandered, riding the tackle of Sol Campbell and bearing down on David James in the Portsmouth goal only for Distin to arrive just in time with a precision tackle to sweep the ball away for a corner.

Distin also cleared off the line from Mikael Silvestre just after half-time and James pulled off the save of the match when he raced out to save with his feet from Samir Nasri.

Yet when Gallas planted his header past James from Denilson`s swirling free-kick the Gunners' fans were left celebrating, but it was far from convincing.