SOCCER: On the front of Highbury's North Bank they list the grounds of their rivals where Arsenal have clinched league titles in recent times. Old Trafford and Anfield are both there, and the club's devotees must take particular pleasure that White Hart Lane features not once but twice.

Victory yesterday and it just might still have been possible that Stamford Bridge would have been added to the list in late April when Arsene Wenger is due to take his side to Chelsea. After yesterday's occasionally frantic and always fiercely fought 2-2 draw, however, it is Jose Mourinho's side who retain a five-point lead over their title rivals. After twice coming from behind thanks to goals by John Terry and Eidur Gudjohnsen, they remain slight favourites to win a first championship in 50 years.

The visitors earned their point, but while both sides had good chances to take an extra two late on, there must have been considerable relief in the Chelsea dressing-room that Thierry Henry had passed up the opportunity to complete what would have been a memorable hat-trick 14 minutes from time when he turned Robert Pires' low cross from the left well over a virtually empty goal.

To judge by his demeanour after watching his side take their point, Mourinho was struggling to cope with what he saw as the injustice of Henry and Arsenal's second, a goal, scored from a controversial free-kick, that, in his view, should never have been allowed to stand.

"I think the result was fair if you can forget about their second goal, but I cannot do that because it was not fair," remarked the Chelsea coach. Asked if he was unhappy, he seemed to feign surprise and replied: "I am more than unhappy. Unhappy is a nice word and I cannot use the word that I have in my heart and soul."

He declined to get into the specifics of how he felt his team had been hard done by half an hour into the game when Graham Poll allowed Henry to take the 25-yard free while Petr Cech was crouching by the near post, still lining up his wall.

"I don't want to talk about the second goal because if I talk about it I might have to go and visit the FA, spend a few weeks in the stand and spend a little money that I prefer to spend on Christmas gifts," he had said just after the final whistle, while at his subsequent press conference he suggested that only Gudjohnsen (who had initially been standing over the ball) could reveal what had gone on between the referee and the Arsenal striker.

"I don't need to ask Eidur, though, because I know the rule," he said. "It is the same in the first or the second division, in China, Japan, Mexico or England. We had a leading referee with us at Harlington (Chelsea's training centre) before the season and he told us all about the rules. One of the things he explained to us was about walls, distances and whistles. It was all very clear."

Perhaps not, for the referee was, in fact, within his rights, under rule 13, to allow Henry take the kick when he did.

Even Wenger, however, expressed some sympathy for Cech who may well have thought that as Poll pointed to his whistle he was instructing the Frenchman to do nothing until it was blown.

"I don't like the rule because it's hard to defend," said the Arsenal boss, "but it happened to us against Leeds a few seasons ago and Thierry scored from a similar situation last year at Aston Villa. That's how I know the rule. The understanding is that the referee asks the free-kick taker whether he wants the wall lined up 10 yards back, and if doesn't then he can take the kick straight away.

"It is hard on the goalkeeper, but then I don't know what he was doing at the post like that," he continued. "It is the one thing you cannot do in the situation because if the kick is taken quickly you really have very little chance of making the save."

Only Gudjohnsen, who declined to discuss the incident, seemed to know what was going on and he, a little bewilderingly, began to back away from the ball as soon as it became clear that Poll would not take time to get the wall 10 yards back.

"He (Poll) was just saying to me: 'Do you want it? Do you want it? Or do you want them back 10 yards and wait for the whistle'," recalled Henry. "I said: 'No', and he said, 'Okay, you can have a go'. Then I was just waiting for Gudjohnsen to step out of the way, that's what I was waiting for. He did that and it was great to see it go in, but I thought that it would be enough and it wasn't. Once again we have had problems with set pieces."

Mourinho shrugged off suggestions that the result was of particular significance. "It is just another game even if it was against a great team," he said, "and now we have two at home, against Norwich and Aston Villa, which, if we win, will be another step in the right direction.

"My players proved to me that they have great character today by coming back twice at Highbury, but Arsenal will still challenge strongly over the months ahead, and there are other teams. Everton are unbelievable because of the fantastic work being down by David Moyes and his players.

"When you think of the championship in England, though, I think you must think of Arsenal and Manchester United," he added. "Liverpool, too, but after yesterday's defeat I think they are now a little too far behind perhaps."

Henry, meanwhile, also observed rather sarcastically that the match could not have been especially important. "As you know I only score in small games. So," he sighed, "it must have been another small one."