Brazil nuts

Having just suffered an honorable loss at the hands of champions-to-be Manchester United thanks to a predictable late rally by the Reds, the Sky Blues players were greeted with the news that survival rivals Middlesbrough had just beaten second-placed Arsenal convincingly.

Indeed, many had concluded that relegation issues involving the two clubs would fail to be addressed on a day that saw them both visit the two best teams in the league.

After all, Middlesbrough had not beaten Arsenal at Highbury since the beginning of the Second World War and stood little chance against a side that had not recorded a single loss all season at home.

Or so we thought.

In truth Middlesbrough's win owed as much to luck as it did judgement.

Opting to play a more reserved 5-4-1 formation with Alen Boksic handed a solitary role up front, Terry Venables could certainly not have planned the two farcical own goals that gifted his side a dream start at Highbury.

An amazing match fact to come out of the 3-0 win was that the visitors had only had two shots on target, something Venables wasn't too bothered about.

He said: "We certainly rode our luck at times but I thought we defended very well. Maybe the goals were slightly fortunate but if you don't shoot you don't get a goal.

"But I think that we attacked Arsenal with some belief in ourselves, which I feel we have lacked in previous matches.

"I have being doing this job a long time and you do get considerable enjoyment from matches like this."

And his future at the Riverside? "Who knows, football is like a drug. You can't live without it."

A superb third goal by the unpredictable Hamilton Ricard that owed much to the craft of Boksic sealed the win that sees Boro widen the safety gap to five points and boosts Venables' embittered side's chance of survival - a fact that Arsene Wenger was sure was never in doubt.

He said: "I always thought that Middlesbrough would stay up because of the quality of the players they have."

However, from the start things did not appear so rosy for the visitors. As early as the ninth minute Kanu was presented with a gilt-edged opportunity to open the scoring after Patrick Vieira had threaded a superb pass through Boro's ponderous defence.

Yet six yards out the Nigerian forward's shot was stopped by Mark Schwarzer's trailing leg and trickled harmlessly by the post.

It was a miss they would later rue as Boro began to find the courage to come forward and finally got their reward on the half-hour mark.

Dean Gordon crossed a seemingly innocuous ball into the Arsenal area, which was headed out by Tony Adams only for the ball to fall at the feet of Dean Windass.

His resulting shot looked destined for the corner flag but took a wicked deflection off the hapless Edu, who steered the ball beyond the despairing dive of David Seaman.

The second was equally farcical. With half-time rapidly approaching, marauding left-wing back Gordon fired a low cross into the box.

Missing its expected target Ricard, the ball rebounded off Silvinho, under no pressure, who haplessly directed the ball past a stranded Seaman with his outstretched knee.

Arsenal changed it around in the second half by bringing on the in-form Sylvain Wiltord for the unfortunate Edu and the French striker did not disappoint, causing many problems down the right flank.

Yet the move proved ultimately fruitless as the Boro forward players combined superbly to fashion a third goal on 57 minutes.

Ricard held the ball up despite the robust attention of Martin Keown, and he laid the ball back to Windass.

The new recruit slotted a superb pass to Croatian star Boksic who deftly back-heeled into the path of the onrushing Ricard.

Gratefully accepting the present, the Colombian slotted past Seaman to the gasps of the home crowd.

Urged on by an increasingly anxious home crowd, Arsenal plundered forward. But they found Boro in a most obstinate mood marshalled by the impressive Okon, once again relishing his sweeper role after an impressive introduction to the role at the Riverside against Sunderland last week.

Frustrated by their team's soporific performance, the Gunners' fans knotted the exits rapidly only to miss two terrific saves by Mark Schwarzer from first a diving header by Adams and then a bullet header by Kanu from the resulting corner.

The Boro fans were even getting greedy as they urged their side to score a fourth.

This feat was almost completed in the dying minutes when a deep run by Christian Karembeu and a melee in the Arsenal box presented the ball to Windass, who duly scuffed the ball over from eight yards.