ARSENAL 2, Wanderers 1: NO self-respecting sports fan would pass up on the distinction of being present when great players or great teams achieve great things.

For the second time in modern history, Bolton fans had the privilege of seeing a record-breaking performance at Highbury. Unfortunately, once again they had to sit and watch enviously as their Arsenal counterparts basked in the glory.

Six seasons ago they saw the irrepressible Ian Wright overtake Cliff Bastin to become the Gunners' all-time record goalscorer with a stunning hat-trick, although a goal feast looked an unlikely prospect when Alan Thompson gave Colin Todd's Wanderers an early lead!

On Saturday they saw Arsene Wenger's amazing assembly of thoroughbreds chalk up the latest in a series of victories that, in statistical terms, sees them take their place as one of the greatest English club sides of all time while, in reality, offered further support to the widely held belief that they are the most exciting and entertaining team ever to grace Premiership.

Sadly, what the record books will never show is how much of a nuisance Wanderers made of themselves as they threatened to spoil the Highbury party.

Not that they looked like troubling their hosts as Robert Pires and Dennis Bergkamp helped themselves to goals right out of the Arsenal manual with rapier-like passing and clinical finishing.

Two-nil down inside 24 minutes, on the back of four successive defeats and with players haranguing each other in an almost embarrassing show of disharmony, this looked like a hammering in the making. Never mind unbeaten runs, suddenly thoughts turned to record victories. Manchester United's 9-0 against Ipswich in 1995 is the Premiership's best ... surely not!

Yet, on the balance of play over the 90 minutes, Arsenal can count themselves lucky.

There was never really any serious danger of them not equalling the record of a 29-game unbeaten start to a season set by Don Revie's Leeds United side of 1973-74 and matched by the Liverpool team of the 1987-88.

There was even a suggestion, after they had extended their unbeaten Premiership run to 31 games, that they had eased up with Wednesday's Champions League quarter-final first leg clash with Chelsea and Sunday's league showdown with Manchester United in mind.

But nothing should detract from the way Wanderers responded or the quality and the courage they showed to not only stop the landslide but to threaten one of the season's biggest upsets. From the 41st minute, when Ivan Campo lashed a left footer into the roof of the net in the windswept shadows of the North Bank, to the 91st, when the Spaniard missed the target from an even better position, a draw looked a better bet than an Arsenal treble . . . and the odds on that are getting shorter by the day.

Sam Allardyce was not being greedy but, at the moment, he needs points more than Wenger needs plaudits and joked: "I thought Arsene was a little bit selfish not letting us get a point!

"That would have been great from our point of view and it wouldn't have spoiled their unbeaten run."

That he could smile in the face of such adversity was down to the fact that, for the second successive Saturday, Wanderers had given such an impressive account of themselves against one of the country's top two teams.

But the smile quickly gave way to a frown as the worry lines re-appeared on his forehead as he considered the consequences of a record he had hoped to avoid; five successive defeats, including the Carling Cup Final, but, more significantly, four on the spin in the league, equalling their worst Premiership sequence in that awful debut season of 95-96.

"Five defeats on the trot is something that has never happened to me at this level," Allardyce acknowledged, "and we've got to rectify that immediately."

Jay-Jay Okocha, who laid down the captain's law in no uncertain terms in an angry first-half exchange with Campo, is not as worried as his manager. He has drawn great encouragement from their performances against Chelsea and Arsenal and was dismissive of any relegation fears when he predicted with characteristic confidence: "If we keep our heads up, working and playing the way we have been doing, we are going to be okay."

He is probably right in his assumption that Wanderers will not be dragged too deeply into the survival scrap but he might soon change his mind if they fail to deliver the quick fix they desperately need and their distance from the danger zone continues to shrink.

Shipping goals and missing chances is a recipe for disaster: preferably both: the next nine games are going to see their character and their nerve tested to the limits.

There were encouraging signs on that score at Highbury. With Thierry Henry, Bergkamp, Pires and Edu in full flow and Patrick Vieira looking every inch the most commanding and powerful driving force in Europe, Arsenal were in exhibition mode. They were awesome and Wanderers simply could not live with them.

But, as Achilles had his weak spot, Wenger has Jens Lehmann: the German goalkeeper assigned the daunting job of succeeding David Seaman and the man whose vulnerability is the greatest threat to the Gunners' hopes of a European and domestic treble.

His failure to command his area when Stelios curled in Wanderers' first corner turned the game on its head. Campo took full advantage after Bruno N'Gotty's first shot had been blocked and, as they had done a week earlier against Charlton, Arsenal wobbled.

It would have been 2-2 at half time had a Stelios header been just the width of the crossbar lower and it should have been all square early in the second half when Kevin Davies put a back-post header wide from the Greek's cross. It was a glaring miss and the industrious Davies, who is leading the field in the Player of the Year stakes, knew it as he lay face down on the Highbury turf.

Wanderers had Jussi Jaaskelainen to thank for a superb one-handed save that denied Henry and they survived two strong penalty appeals: Simon Charlton's nudge on Freddie Ljungberg a better shout than N'Gotty's saving tackle on Henry that was exquisitely-executed: but they still dominated the second half.

Wenger, who famously lost his cool when Wanderers came from 2-0 down to claim the draw at the Reebok last April that did serious damage to Arsenal's title prospects, kept his tie on but had anxious moments as Lehmannn flapped. But credit Sol Campbell and Co, who have more steel about them these days. It was their organisation and resilience that ensured the suspect keeper was not over-exposed as Henrik Pedersen's energy and Okocha's driving determination had the result in the balance as the game went into overtime.

Highbury has never looked such an impregnable fortress but, for all their problems at the soon-to-be-demolished North London ground, Wanderers have had their moments there: the FA Cup triumph of 94 and the Premiership draw of 2001 being the most notable: and if Campo had been on target with his last-gasp volley, tantalisingly teed up by Stelios and Davies, this would have been another.