SOCCER/Middlesbrough 2 Arsenal 1:Are Arsenal about to implode? Was Arsène Wenger wrong to offload Jeremie Aliadiere? Is Gareth Southgate launching a late challenge for the England job? While the answers almost certainly remain resounding "noes", all three briefly seemed legitimate questions yesterday as Wenger's side surrendered their unbeaten league record to a seemingly reborn Middlesbrough without a win in 11 games.
Frequently outpassed by a refreshingly creative Boro, Arsenal were left looking as disorientated as the driver of their team bus must have done when he took a wrong turn en route to the Riverside from a hotel near Yarm and ended up approaching Darlington rather than Middlesbrough. By the time of the U-turn, traffic was building and Wenger's squad finally pulled into the ground with little more than an hour to spare before kick-off.
Boro are sponsored by a company making satnav devices but Southgate often prefers the scenic, map-guided, route to Boro's rural training ground and, true to character, he opted to deviate from the accepted road to victory against Arsenal.
Received wisdom has it that attempting to take Arsenal on at their own passing game is a high-risk strategy only attempted by the naive or reckless. Admittedly Boro made sure to force, and then maintain, a high tempo yesterday and rarely allowed Arsenal time on the ball but, in between all this impressive energy, Southgate's men regularly outthought the league leaders. Even if they had possessed the inclination and muscle, Boro were good enough to have no need to resort to kicking their visitors.
Fabio Rochemback increasingly seemed a step ahead of his midfield opponents as the Teessiders played with the sort of intelligence and integrity that sets Southgate apart from many peers. Several of his fellow managers privately shook their heads when he signed the hardly prolific Aliadiere last summer but the striker helped undo his former employers.
The Frenchman wasted little time in reminding Wenger of his blistering acceleration, his change of pace prompting Kolo Toure to pull him down and concede an early penalty, calmly converted by Stewart Downing.
The winger, along with Jonathan Woodgate, Mark Schwarzer and Mido, is rumoured to be keen to escape Boro, but if he is he disguised it quite brilliantly as, outstanding throughout, he gave a convincing impression of a man fully committed to Southgate's cause.
Indeed Downing might have created a goal as early as the second minute when he dodged Bacary Sagna before arrowing in a cross that was slightly too fierce for Tuncay Sanli to control at the far post. A little later it took an impressive tackle from Toure to deny the onrushing winger a clear shot.
With Boro's cohesive passing suggesting they had decided imitation really was the sincerest form of flattery, Arsenal appeared nonplussed, with Emmanuel Eboue arguably lucky to stay on the pitch after raising his hands at Emanuel Pogatetz.
Clearly pining for their absent midfield inspiration, Cesc Fàbregas, Arsenal found themselves on the back foot and Toure did well to block a floated cross from Gary O'Neil with Aliadiere lurking menacingly.
With Schwarzer still sidelined, Wenger's team might have been tempted to sting the deputising Ross Turnbull's fingers at every opportunity but with Woodgate - later withdrawn suffering from cramp - having suddenly rediscovered the imperious talent has so bafflingly mislaid this season they rarely got the chance.
Turnbull was so well protected by his defence he may even have been slightly disappointed at having so little to do. Yet Boro's lead remained slender and Southgate must have cursed when Tuncay directed a shot, beautifully created by another clever Rochemback pass, fractionally wide from a position where the Turk's former Istanbul public would have expected the one-time "King of Fenerbahce" to have made no mistake.
No matter: this was by far Tuncay's best game in a Boro shirt and, strutting his stuff encouragingly, he succeeded in fazing Toure and William Gallas in a manner rarely seen this season. Ruffled in all departments, Arsenal looked half a yard off the pace and had used all three substitutes by the 61st minute.
Such changes made no difference. Tuncay effectively put the game beyond Arsenal's reach, lashing in Boro's second goal on the rebound after Manuel Almunia could only parry an O'Neil shot following a poor clearance of Downing's corner.
True, Tomas Rosicky claimed a 95th-minute consolation with a 12-yard shot at the end of a wonderful passing sequence, but it proved a mere footnote to Boro's astonishing renaissance.
