Wenger: We'll bounce back

In one sense, the quality of Arsenal's performance last night emphasised Chelsea's achievement over the last nine months. Even without the talismanic Thierry Henry, some of their football in the first half was breathtakingly good.

But it's not been good enough to prevent Chelsea, in their Centenary season, winning the Championship for the first time since 1955.

Chelsea fans may not agree, but I think the turning point of the season came in late October when Arsenal's 2-0 defeat against Manchester-United ended a record run of 49 undefeated Premier League games. The champions then dropped points to teams like Southampton, Crystal Palace and West Brom.

"It took us a while to recover from the defeat at Old Trafford," admitted Wenger. "When you have a season like we had last year you know it can't get any better. We've not been disastrous this season, but Chelsea have been exceptional.

"Nonetheless I take a lot of satisfaction from the quality of our team and the emergence of the youngsters. I sense we are ready again. The youngsters have learned a lot and I think we'll be competitive again next season."

Certainly young players like Philippe Senderos and Cesc Fabregas are going to be significant figures next season if last night's displays were anything to go by.

Senderos was magnificent in shepherding-Didier Drogba into safe areas of the pitch while Fabregas, just 17, cruised stealthily around midfield disrupting Chelsea's rhythm. The form of centre-half Senderos has been so encouraging that Wenger clearly faces a selection headache with England's Sol Campbell now ready to return from injury.

Once Campbell would have been pitched back into action at the earliest opportunity. But the emergence of the 6ft 3in Swiss Under-21 defender means that Wenger doesn't have to rush.

Drogba rarely broke free from Senderos and, although he had two scoring opportunities, he drove the first into the legs of Jens Lehmann and pulled the second wide of the goal.

In an exhilarating contest played at high speed, Arsenal had marginally more possession and created better chances. With Henry as the cutting edge they would probably have scored at least once.

Robert Pires, for instance, had two wonderful chances early in the game when Arsenal's crisp passing was clearly troubling John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho.

He drove his first chance against the bar and, with the goal before him, dragged his second shot wide.

The pace of the first half was furious and it was heartening to watch two outstanding teams stretching themselves without resorting to the histrionic behaviour that has marred so many of the Premiership's big occasions this season.

Chelsea were defiant from the first minute to the last and although they haven't beaten Arsenal in the Premiership for 10 years, they were clearly not about to surrender their unbeaten home record to their London rivals.

William Gallas made a critical block in the first half, denying Gilberto Silva a shooting opportunity, and after the interval the diligent Frank Lampard made a superb interception in the penalty area as Pires was about to shoot.

A draw was just about right and, for once, the two teams left the field at the end as though they didn't have a care in the world.

Chelsea gave the impression that they didn't mind dropping two points, though I'm sure they would have preferred to cross the finish line before facing Liverpool over two legs in the Champions League semi-final.

"We'll focus on that next week," said Clarke. "But for now we have a tough local derby with Fulham to look forward to at the weekend."

If they beat Fulham, and Arsenal lose to Tottenham on Monday the title is theirs.