For the time being Arsenal will be content to stalk Manchester United with the dedication of gumshoes. What remains to be seen, when the pace hots up after Christmas, is whether Arsene Wenger's latest pursuit of the Premiership title is maintained in the spirit of Maigret or Clouseau.
Already Arsenal are demonstrating that when it comes to winning matches with an economy of labour they are not far behind United. On Saturday morning, Alex Ferguson saw off Leeds without using Ryan Giggs or Andy Cole. In the afternoon, Wenger won at Upton Park with Thierry Henry and Nwankwo Kanu employed only as late substitutes and even Ray Parlour, an important piston in the machine, left on the bench at the start.
Arsenal will be fortunate, however, if they continue to find opponents quite so obliging as West Ham were on Saturday. For most of the first half West Ham's defence did not exist as a recognisable entity. A slipshod error by Trevor Sinclair allowed Robert Pires to score after 12 minutes and an own goal by Rio Ferdinand increased Arsenal's lead after 21.
The rest was a familiar story of West Ham recovering their faculties sufficiently to get back into the contest after half-time and perform with enough vigour to convince themselves, their supporters and their manager that they deserved a point, even though the opposition had enough chances on the break to double their score.
After the game Harry Redknapp made his usual speech, the one which starts with condemnation of the defence - "You cannot give goals away like that at this level" - but ends with a ringing assertion that things will get better - "I'm still convinced that we'll finish in the top half of the table, nothing has changed my mind."
When Frank Lampard and John Moncur eventually managed to establish a base in midfield to back the skills of Joe Cole, whose qualities shone through West Ham's football like a search-light, some sort of parity was restored.
Until a low free-kick from Stuart Pearce, struck left-footed from just beyond the right-hand corner of the penalty area, beat David Seaman through a crowd of players early in the second half, Upton Park had been resigned to blowing raspberries rather than bubbles.
Pearce's goal, however, roused West Ham to something approaching fervour and had Davor Suker, recently recovered from injury, been at his sharpest he might have brought the scores level 12 minutes from the end when a nod-down from Sinclair put the ball on to his favourite left foot. Instead he sliced his shot.
At the final whistle Martin Keown indulged in a maniacal oneman celebration for the Arsenal fans which might have been better saved for the winning of the Premiership or the Champions League. At present, beating West Ham is worth about half a whoopee.
WEST HAM: Hislop, S Pearce, Ferdinand, Lomas, Winterburn, Lampard, Sinclair, Cole, Moncur (Suker 74), Di Canio, Kanoute. Subs Not Used: Bywater, Carrick, Diawara, I Pearce. Booked: Moncur. Goal: S Pearce 56.
ARSENAL: Seaman, Luzhny, Keown, Silvinho, Grimandi, Vieira, Ljungberg (Parlour 65), Lauren, Pires, Wiltord (Henry 76), Bergkamp (Kanu 88). Subs Not Used: Lukic, Dixon. Goals: Pires 12, Ferdinand 21 og.
Referee: D Gallagher (Banbury).
