Premiership: Arsenal loss hands title to United

Arsenal 0, Middlesbrough 3 (full time)

Barely believable own-goals by Arsenal’s pair of Brazilian stars gave Middlesbrough a shock two-goal lead and handed the Premiership title to Manchester United.

Croatioan star Alan Boksic put away a third to seal Boro’s win.

Before today, Middlesbrough had not won at Highbury in 62 years - and it looked likely that United would have to wait until next week to seal their Premiership fate.

But it was Boro who took the lead with a freak own-goal by Edu in the 33rd minute.

Midfielder Edu, making his first home appearance in the Arsenal starting line-up, deflected an off-target Dean Windass shot past David Seaman.

Five minutes later full-back Silvinho crashed an intended clearance into his own net from a Dean Gordon cross.

Tony Adams headed away Dean Gordon’s cross from the left and although Windass miscued his shot from 20 yards it struck the luckless Brazilian on the heel and slipped beyond the dive of David Seaman to squeeze just inside a post.

Arsenal had not quite found their best rhythm in the first half-hour and this was a stunning blow. Boro redoubled their determination in defence and were relieved when an Adams header flew over the bar after he connected cleanly with a Pires corner.

Arsenal made frenzied efforts to repair the damage but had to defend stoically to prevent Boksic grabbing a third for Boro when Martin Keown eventually charged down the his shot.

Arsenal started the second half in control and looked set to repair the deficit.

Seaman had to make a smart dive to his right to prevent Windass adding to Boro’s lead with a sharp shot a minute into the second half.

Edu had been taken off and replaced by striker Sylvain Wiltord and it was soon clear there would be a siege on the Middlesbrough goal.

They dragged all but Boksic back behind the ball and dug in for the rest of the afternoon. Schwarzer kept out Wiltord’s shot at the near post as Arsenal laboured to create openings.

Wave after wave of attack was cleared and the Gunners could make nothing of a string of corners.

However, on 58 mins and against the run of play, Croatian Alan Boksic provided a cross for Hamilton Ricard who fired past David Seaman.

Despite Arsenal laying siege for the latter part of the second half the underdogs held out for the 3-0 win.