IF Steve McClaren could have picked a side to face at home following the embarrassing 3-0 Riverside defeat by Charlton last month, you could be assured Arsenal would come somewhere near the bottom of his list.

Eight straight league defeats and the Boro boss' personal home league record against the Gunners at 5.15pm on Saturday read: played four, won none, lost four, goals scored none, goals conceded 11.

Hardly inspiring and seemingly not an ideal day to re-introduce Italian misfit Massimo Maccarone to the trials and tribulations of a Premier League match from the beginning.

The Italian hadn't started a game for the Teessiders since May 2004 and, after a year-long loan back in his homeland, it appeared the 26-year-old would be returning to Serie A with Siena.

That deal, however, fell apart on the eve of the season, leaving Boro's record signing at £8.15m in apparent limbo.

But to McClaren's credit he refused to ignore the former Italy international and, with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink injured and Mark Viduka suffering the after-effects of a World Cup double-header on the other side of the world, Maccarone was back.

The omens were far from good and after 30 minutes on Saturday it appeared there would be no change to normal service as Arsene Wenger's side attacked Boro in numbers and regularly.

Boro's defence and midfield were under siege and as Gareth Southgate admitted afterwards the late change to the Teessiders' system didn't help.

McClaren decided to play Maccarone in a withdrawn attacking role, helping out his midfield at every opportunity, and it would be fair to say for the first 40 minutes it was hardly an unqualified success.

"We survived the first few chances and confidence was not very high at the start," said the skipper. "But we scored and we grew into the game.

"We had thrown together the game plan in the last couple of days and not had much time to work on the formation.

"At the beginning problems arose and it could have cost us but we got away with it."

They did get away with it in the first half - just.

Jose Antonio Reyes was a constant thorn from minute one to minute 90.

With just 30 seconds on the clock he robbed the hesitant Ugo Ehiogu, broke into the box and fired low left-footed. Luckily for Boro Mark Schwarzer was alert enough to keep out that effort.

Reyes was at it again on ten minutes. Good work between Alexander Hleb and Dennis Bergkamp down the right allowed the Belarus international to release his Spanish team-mate in the box.

Reyes took one touch and curled the ball low past Schwarzer's right hand only to see his effort cannon off the post.

Arsenal completely dominated midfield with their inter-passing and movement. After Robert Pires, Bergkamp and Reyes had spurned further chances Yakubu grabbed his first goal following his £7.5m summer move from Portsmouth.

He collected a pass from George Boateng with his back to goal and then got a lucky break off Kolo Toure before shooting low into the corner of the net. The shot was instinctive and typical of the Nigeria international.

The second half was a far better spectacle for Boro fans, as McClaren's men soaked up the early pressure and then started to gain a stranglehold in midfield.

Brazilian Fabio Rochemback was among those to impress and after fellow debutant, teenager Adam Johnson, had forced Jens Lehmann to save at the foot of a post, Maccarone announced his return to Teesside just before the hour.

Boro broke quickly from their own box and when Yakubu fed the Italian, he raced through to slip the ball past Lehmann.

The gamble of playing Maccarone in an unaccustomed role appeared was an unqualified success.

McClaren said: "Playing one striker is always a gamble, you always wonder but he (Maccarone) is capable of doing it.

"We saw it in training on Thursday, it looked good and we felt it would cause them problems.

"We changed the system last season but we approached it a little differently, did a couple of things differently and tweaked a couple of things. Whatever shape you play you have to know your job, it requires discipline and that was the vital ingredient."

At 2-0 down the Gunners appeared to have shot their bolt with subsitutute Cesc Fabregas epitomising their disappointment with a needless booking for dissent.

But Reyes refused to throw in the towel and grabbed a 90th minute consolation after a tight offside decision went Arsenal's way.

Ashley Cole had the chance to break Boro fans' hearts but fired wide in injury time from the edge of the box.

According to McClaren it was a long-time coming but they could now put the Charlton defeat - described by Southgate as humiliating - to bed.

"Some times you can't explain a performance and a result and we couldn't explain Charlton because four days earlier we played Birmingham and we were magnificent and in football some times you get performances like that and it really knocked us back," said McClaren.

"The anger finally subsided and we needed this one a bit sooner, two weeks is too long."

Result: Middlesborough 2, Arsenal 1.

Read more about Middlesbrough here.