FRENCHMAN Christian Karembeu was dumped on the subs' bench as Bryan Robson plumped for the bulldog spirit to restore a measure of pride to the Middlesbrough ranks.

Every member of Robson's foreign legion was missing by the time Colombian striker Hamilton Ricard was sacrificed after Mark Crossley was controversially sent off in the 24th minute.

The Boro keeper paid the price for bringing down Freddie Ljungberg and denying the Swedish midfielder a goalscoring opportunity.

Karembeu's France teammate Thierry Henry sent substitute keeper Marlon Beresford the wrong way with the resultant penalty.

In the current climate, a flood of goals might have been expected, especially given Boro's recent track record against the Gunners.

Arsene Wenger's men won 6-1 here two seasons ago and 5-1 when the sides met at Highbury last term.

But ten-man Boro battled bravely to stem the flow and nobody embodied the fighting qualities more than the ubiquitous Noel Whelan.

Signed from Coventry for £2m in the close season, Whelan is as comfortable in midfield as he is up front where he first came to prominence with home-town club Leeds.

The 25-year-old former England Under-21 international had won praise from manager Robson for his performance in Boro's bitterly disappointing Worthington Cup exit last Tuesday at Wimbledon, where again the game was decided by a penalty.

They say that when your luck's out, nothing goes your way - and that's certainly true of Boro these days.

Key men Alen Boksic, Paul Ince, Ugo Ehiogu and Mark Schwarzer were all still absent as the Riverside outfit suffered their fifth consecutive defeat in all competitions and slipped into the Premiership's bottom three, to intensify the pressure on Robson.

The dismissal of Crossley was the latest blow and Whelan said: "That's the way it is at the moment - we're not getting that bit of luck.

"It's hard enough playing against Arsenal with 11 men, never mind ten!

"You can't fault the lads for workrate and commitment.

"The manager has been going through a bad time for the last month.

"The pressure gets to the gaffer, the players and everyone at the club.

"He decides on the 11 who go out and chooses the best side available.

"We haven't been doing the job, but that's not because he's a bad manager or we're bad players. But it's our fault.

"Maybe the manager decided on a bit of British bulldog spirit this time.

"He tried to get everything right to fight for the points.

"You have to dig in. You need a bit of elbow grease before you start to win games and it's always been like that in the English league.

"You have to mix it with the best. I was absolutely knackered at the end of the game just through pure running and trying to put everything into it.

"At Coventry, Gordon Strachan always said you should not come off regretting things and feeling you haven't put everything in.

"We've just got to keep going and hopefully we'll get a bit of luck and the season will turn round.''

After a string of woeful performances, Karembeu has much to do to convince the Teesside public that he is worth a reputed £40,000-a-week salary.

The 29-year-old midfielder is currently arguably the most successful player on the planet after collecting World Cup, European Cup and European Championship winner's medals with France and Real Madrid in the space of two years.

But in each of those campaigns, Karembeu was a bit-part player, spending much of his time keeping a seat warm on the bench.

That's where the £2.1m summer signing found himself on Saturday and Robson explained: "I thought it was best for Christian just to sit on the sidelines and have a look at the game.

"In the last few games he's been getting caught in possession.

"I had a chat with him and he thought the same. He took it well and wanted to have a look from the sidelines.''

What Karembeu saw was countryman Henry slot home his ninth goal of the season after a defensive fiasco had left Crossley hopelessly exposed.

Gary Pallister played a dreadful ball across the face of the Boro penalty area and Ljungberg skipped round Steve Vickers before being felled by Crossley.

Immediately after converting the spot-kick, Henry dedicated his goal to the memory of Arsenal legend George Armstrong, the Gunners' reserve-team coach and former Boro coach who died suddenly last week.

Henry faced the visiting fans and pointed to his black armband, and Wenger said: I think that was for Geordie Armstrong. It was just something spontaneous.''

Arsenal's England midfielder Ray Parlour said: "The result here was great but, in general, the past week has been a disaster for us. George Armstrong was a major person at the club and he brought a lot of players through. I played a lot of games under him and he was a great influence. He was a wonderful man. He's been a legend for the club and an inspiration to us all.''

Henry could have helped himself to a second-half hat-trick as three clear chances went begging, the last of which struck a post. But it was largely thanks to Beresford that Boro didn't lose by a much heavier margin.

The third-choice keeper produced a fine array of saves, the pick being a stunning one-handed effort from Gilles Grimandi's glancing header five minutes before half-time.

l ARMANI-CLAD Robbie Savage might play the soccer jet-setter image to the full, but there's more to the Welshman than those flowing blond locks and jewelled earrings.

The all-action midfielder personifies everything that is Leicester City.

He gives every ounce of effort in lung-busting running, covering and sheer hard work. That's the Leicester style and without it, they would be nothing.

New England coach Peter Taylor may well take the mickey out of Savage following the four stitches the Wrexham-born star needed in a cut finger. Leicester's boss reckons Savage was only worried because it was the finger he used to flick back his hair!

Savage said: ''The gaffer made that crack about my hair after the game, and my injured finger. But I can take all that, I know we'd run ourselves into the ground for the result and that's all that matters.''