Arsenal rumbled by Dowie's tactics

'They play a wonderful style of football and you know that any minute they can conjure a goal out of nothing,' said Dowie. 'Their movement and rotation are fantastic.

They test every aspect of your defensive mettle. For us to compete with that quality is very pleasing.'

In reality, this is a good time to be playing Arsenal.

Their edge is temporarily blunted and the ending of their history-making sequence of unbeaten games has triggered some physical and mental reaction.

'At the moment we're below par,' admitted Arsenal manager Wenger. 'Maybe it isn't a coincidence that it has come after the United defeat. When you've just gone 49 games unbeaten it's a shock when you lose.

'Maybe how it happened made it worse. You must live with that. But we won't have a problem long term. After all, we've lost one game this year and we're in November.' Of more concern was Wenger's belief that his team of strolling passers and movers might be affected by the winter. 'We're a light team and on heavy grounds it's less easy than when it's dry.

'And when you're not feeling sharp physically, you're less confident mentally. That is normal.'

What is not normal is to see quality players like Freddie Ljungberg and Robert Pires, in particular, and Thierry Henry failing to make an impact.'

One concern for Arsenal fans is that there are a couple of up and coming Champions League matches in which the side need to be on top form.

Nor can they afford to allow Chelsea to put any kind of distance between them at the top. This is the first time since January that Arsenal have been dislodged from the head of the Premiership for anything more than half a day, itself another psychological blow.

So the Arsenal players might like to hear the view of the man who scored the Palace goal. Riihilahti, a veteran international with more than 50 caps for his country, said: 'They are a great side, probably the best we have played against.

'They are more adventurous than Chelsea, more attacking. We played a lot better against Arsenal than we did against Chelsea, but that just shows we have improved this season. We rarely concede a goal these days, our passing is getting better and bit by bit we are improving.' That was shown when Riihilahti was in the perfect position to sweep home a cross from Vassis Lakis just two minutes after a Henry tap-in from a Ljungberg centre had given Arsenal the lead.

In fact, such was the Palace spirit - and so much were Arsenal rattled - that Dowie's team would have been in front moments later had Lakis not ballooned the ball over from three yards after the impressive Andrew Johnson had crossed behind a retreating defence.

Dowie refreshingly blames himself for Palace's poor start and reflects: 'Perhaps I didn't put enough belief in what got us into the Premiership in the first place. The fact we were bottom of the table was more my fault than the players.

'I made some bad decisions. I did not realise the impact that bringing other players in and changing the system would have. I was too worried about the opposition and not about ourselves. This was a quantum leap but I didn't do justice to the players that they could make that leap. They're the things you do as a young manager.'

How invigorating it is to hear a manager admit his mistakes with such frankness. Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson might be top of the managerial tree but Dowie is on the lower branches and climbing very rapidly.