Ranieri: We could do better

Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri leapt to the defence of keeper Carlo Cudicini after his blunder allowed Arsenal to climb back to the top of the Premiership table.

Hernan Crespo’s superb eighth-minute strike, which cancelled out Edu’s deflected free-kick, left the Blues clinging on to a point at Highbury until the Italian spilled a Robert Pires cross which Thierry Henry almost involuntarily bundled home to snatch victory.

Ranieri was devastated to see the Gunners handed the win on a plate, but refused to blame his compatriot.

“I said to Carlo, ‘don’t worry’, because a lot of times he has saved good chances for the opposition,” he said.

“He is very sad, but a lot of goalkeepers make mistakes and Carlo is human. I hope this is his last one and I don’t think it will affect his confidence.

“I think we saw that Chelsea are not a team in the same way as Arsenal or Manchester United.

“When Robert Pires, Sylvain Wiltord or Ashley Cole get the ball, Henry knows what they are going to do with it. But when Damien Duff gets the ball for us, Adrian Mutu and Hernan Crespo don’t know what is going to happen next.

“People keep asking me how long it will take before we know what each other is going to do, but I really don’t know. I just hope it happens soon.

“Even though we lost, I am pleased because we played with good heart and tried to do the best thing for Chelsea.”

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger conceded that his side had needed a stroke of luck, but was happy with the performance.

“In the end, we were lucky because Cudicini is usually reliable but he made that mistake,” he said.

“But I felt we wanted the three points, whereas they would have been happy with a point.”

The win left the Gunners a point clear at the top of the table with Manchester United having leap-frogged Chelsea following their single-goal victory over Leeds at Elland Road.

Corkman Roy Keane won a tight game nine minutes from time with a back-post header, but it was under-fire defender Rio Ferdinand who caught manager Alex Ferguson’s eye after another difficult week.

“I cannot think of a better performance by Rio, particularly in this situation in coming back to his old club,” he said.

“I never thought of leaving him out and he was fantastic.

“The fans shouted every time he touched the ball, but we expected that. To be honest, I thought the Leeds fans were quite fair and in the end, I think they gave up.”

Leeds boss Peter Reid was disappointed to see a point slip from his grasp so late in the game, but took plenty of positives out of the performance.

“It was probably our best defensive performance of the season and we nearly did it,” he said. “But nearly is not enough at this level.

“I can’t criticise my players in any way, though. They did well and there are a lot of disappointed boys in the dressing room.

“We have proved we can compete with the best – it is just that we have to do it consistently now.”

The performance of the day came on the blue half of Manchester where Kevin Keegan’s City side trounced Bolton 6-2 with Shaun Wright-Phillips scoring twice before receiving his marching orders for an ugly challenge on Simon Charlton.

“I never saw a 6-2 scoreline,” admitted Keegan. “Having said that, we could be talking about eight or nine.”

Shola Ameobi’s first-half strike ensured that it was Sir Bobby Robson who triumphed in the battle of the beleaguered bosses as Newcastle won 1-0 at Middlesbrough, although Steve McClaren’s frustration was increased by three stunning saves from Shay Given.

Portsmouth’s former Liverpool midfielder Patrick Berger heaped further misery on Gerard Houllier with a fourth-minute goal which was enough to claim all three points at Fratton Park, while Wolves manager David Jones saw his side climb from the foot of the table with a hard-earned point from a 0-0 draw at Fulham.