In a well-heeled sport whose corridors are crowded with fixers, agents and sponsors it is time for the public to grab its own chance to be selfish.
Anyone with a passion for football is under an obligation to ignore all the fretting about fixture congestion. Let the administrators worry while supporters revel in thoughts of the feverish entertainment at Highbury on Saturday.
The only hope that the neutrals should hold for the replay is that it might go rattling off into extra-time. There is a cost to the footballers but they, too, were held spellbound by this match, so immersed in its dramas that there was no restraint. Energy gushed out of them as if there would never be another game, as if, in Arsenal's case, Roma would not be in town tomorrow.
That attitude comes as a relief in a football culture too often given to spurious wittering about long-term planning. The accountants know what a windfall there will be, for example, should Chelsea qualify for the Champions League but there is something demoralising about a masterplan that asks athletes to regard fourth place in the league as the supreme prize.
The immediacy of the contest was all that mattered here from the instant that John Terry headed in Jesper Gronkjaer's cross to give the visitors the lead in the third minute. Chelsea were fully entitled to this draw and, while Arsenal were sometimes on a higher plane, Claudio Ranieri's team kept dragging them back into the struggle.
There was an anarchic streak to a match that scoffed at predictions. When Francis Jeffers, on his way down before Carlo Cudicini's hand had brushed his toecap, procured a penalty Thierry Henry was denied by the goalkeeper's leaping save. The forward, however, was in such rich form that even such a mishap hardly ruffled his serenity. Only when cramp in his calf forced him to go off did it begin to look as if the advantage he had presented to Arsenal would not last the match either.
His sort of talent is addictive and, on this occasion, the team shuddered without him as if it were doing cold turkey. Arsene Wenger first classed Henry as a "big doubt" for the Champions League tie with Roma but, 10 minutes later, put the odds on him being available at a far more encouraging 50-50.
If the attacker's condition improves at such a rate the Italians will need kryptonite to stop him tomorrow. Chelsea were no barrier to Henry, who was denied a legitimate penalty, hit a post and, in the 45th minute, scored Arsenal's delicious second goal.
Released by one of Patrick Vieira's several penetrating passes, the striker called upon remarkable improvisation to elude Cudicini almost as does a forward with his back to goal when spinning away from a defender. That quicksilver adaptation to circumstances left Henry facing an unattended net.
Jeffers had settled on orthodox opportunism for the equaliser nine minutes earlier. Freddie Ljungberg's shot was blocked and, when Celestine Babayaro scuffed his effort at a clearance, the striker pounced to knock the ball home.
It was never a match amenable to efficiency and the influence of the coaches on the action was tentative.
Ranieri improved Chelsea's prospects by introducing Boudewijn Zenden for Gianfranco Zola at the interval so that his team had five men in midfield to establish a bridgehead. Later, though, there was widespread disbelief when he removed the team's most flamboyant figure, Gronkjaer. So much did this seem to play into Arsenal's hands that it might have been Wenger holding up the Dane's number.
All the same, Chelsea were intrepid no matter how the personnel shifted and David Seaman made a series of saves from Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. Even when William Gallas headed a free-kick over from six yards the visitors acted only as if that proved they were getting ever closer.
With seven minutes left, Sol Campbell's swipe in the melee that followed a corner merely rolled the ball off Frank Lampard and in for the leveller.
This restaging of last season's FA Cup final was a great improvement on the original. They say the replay on March 25th will affect the preparations of England and France for their respective games with Liechtenstein and Malta.
That should really be taken as authorisation to forget everything else and look forward to Chelsea and Arsenal again competing to the point of exhaustion at a peak of excitement.
ARSENAL: Seaman, Lauren, Keown, Campbell, van Bronckhorst, Ljungberg (Pires 64), Parlour, Vieira, Edu, Jeffers (Wiltord 65), Henry (Toure 78). Subs Not Used: Cygan, Warmuz. Booked: Edu. Goals: Jeffers 37, Henry 45.
CHELSEA: Cudicini, Melchiot, Gallas, Terry, Babayaro, Gronkjaer (De Lucas 72), Lampard, Petit (Gudjohnsen 72), Morris, Hasselbaink, Zola (Zenden 45). Subs Not Used: Huth, Evans. Booked: Cudicini, Morris. Goals: Terry 3, Lampard 84.
Referee: P Durkin (Dorset)
