Sol's touch of class

Everyone looked shocked except the man himself who was once, of course, a striker in his early days at Tottenham.

"He does that in training sometimes" smiled Wenger. "With defenders it sometimes flies in and sometimes ends up in the back of the stand."

Wenger may look back on Campbell's goal as a defining moment in the title race, especially if Chelsea slip up when they visit Portsmouth on December 28.

Wenger added: "Portsmouth beat Manchester United here. They are a difficult team to play against. We knew it would be a big test for us because we realised three points would put us back in the race."

The win lifts Arsenal above Everton into second place but Wenger knows that at the very least they must match Chelsea's results over the holiday programme if they are to stay in touch. They have two relatively straightforward home games against Fulham and Manchester City and two potentially tricky away ties at Newcastle and Charlton.

Unfortunately, they will almost certainly be without Jose Reyes. A knee injury means that he will be out of action for at least a fortnight though Edu and Fredrik Ljungberg could soon be back.

The return from suspension of captain Patrick Vieira gave Arsenal a timely boost, though his touch betrayed him early in the match when he turned an easy chance over the crossbar. Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie also had opportunities, though the best probably fell to Portsmouth's Fuller, who shot wide after a late but critical intervention by Kolo Toure.

Fuller wasted another chance soon after the restart.

Patrik Berger created the opportunity with a run that stretched the Arsenal defence but his ball to the feet of Fuller was wasted.

The introduction of Ayegbeni Yakubu from the substitutes' bench gave Portsmouth fresh impetus and further problems for Arsenal.

After one challenge by the Portsmouth striker, Almunia required treatment but recovered sufficiently to make two outstanding saves that will surely ensure he retains his place ahead of Jens Lehmann.

Portsmouth, unbeaten in their previous four mat ches, could have equalised through Steve Stone or Berger but for the agility of the Arsenal goalkeeper.

Portsmouth coach Joe Jordan, running the team with executive director Velimir Zajec until chairman Milan Mandaric names a successor to Harry Redknapp, said: "The reality is that we didn't take our chances.

"It's disappointing because we worked so hard to contain a team of Arsenal's quality in the first half.

We pushed on after half-time but didn't make the most of our opportunities and you have to do that against a team like Arsenal.

"It's not nice to get beaten but it softens the blow when you play as well as we did. I think it is very encouraging for the future."

Wenger added: "We are hungry again and we are back in the race. All I can promise is that we will do our best."