CHARLTON 1 ARSENAL 0

The result which is Charlton's seventh home win of the season and their first victory over their opponents in 45 years lifts The Addicks to eighth place, while Arsenal are now level on points with Sunderland in second place.

Although Johansson's goal in the first half came against the run of play, The Addicks were the side who created all the chances in the second half, before the penalty 17 minutes from time gave them the chance to salvage a point from the game.

The spot kick came after substitute Tomas Danilevicius was brought down in the box by Mark Fish but, with regular penalty taker Thierry Henry joining Tony Adams, Martin Keown, Dennis Bergkamp, Sylvain Wiltord and Lauren on the sidelines, Vivas' effort was too close to Kiely's body and the Irish keeper managed to parry away to safety.

Despite Arsenal fielding such a weakened side they dominated the first half posession-wise, winning a plethora of corners and creating the only half-chances of the early stages.

Charlton caught Arsenal with the classic sucker punch before the break when Johansson netted his 13th goal of the season with a fierce close range header.

Radostin Kiskishev hit a long ball into the Gunners' area which Grimande partially cleared to the left hand side of the penalty area. From there Stuart volleyed back a measured cross that the leaping Finn headed low past a wrong-footed Manninger.

Soon after the goal the home side could have doubled their league when Shaun Bartlett met Claus Jensen's left wing corner inside the six yard box, with Alex Manninger nowhere, but he directed his header wide of the goal.

After 26 minutes, Silvinho whipped in a low inswinging free kick from the right flank that Vieira met with a sliding lunge, but Kiely pushed away well and the rebound evaded the Arsenal players in the box and was cleared to safety.

Two minutes later, Ljungberg aimed a looping header at goal from Vivas' deep right wing cross that Kiely tipped over the bar.

Probably the closest Arsenal came to scoring in the opening period was when Parlour raced forwards on the counter-attack and hit a twenty yard strike that Kiely pushed away at full stretch.

An avalanche at the Charlton goal may have been expected in the second half, but the opposite occurred as Charlton had three good chances to extend their lead within the first 15 minutes of the second period.

Five minutes after the break, in almost a carbon copy of Bartlett's earlier chance, Andy Todd met Claus Jensen's right wing corner at the front post but could only direct his unchallenged header over the Arsenal goal.

Within a minute they had another chance, with Jensen crossing to the back post this time, finding Fish's South African team-mate Bartlett unmarked, but his stooping header was well saved by Manninger - diving full stretch to his right.

With the partnership of Johansson and Bartlett it appears that Alan Curbishley may have found the partnership to keep his side in the top flight and it was their combination that should have resulted in Charlton doubling their lead on the hour mark.

Johansson cleverly deflected a long crossfield ball from Konchesky square to his strike partner leaving him one-on-one with Manninger from eight yards out. Unfortunately for the home fans Bartlett slipped on the moment of contact allowing Grimande to clear and his side nearly paid the price for this profilecy 12 minutes later when their opponents were awarded the penalty.

Although they enjoyed terriorial advantage and a lot of possession in the final 15 minutes, Arsenal did not really look like getting back on level terms, failed to create a real chance and did not test Kiely. 

Arsenal were left even more upset in the final stages as Graham Stuart, who until this point had been superb for Charlton, launched a two-footed challenge on Vieira that received a caution and perhaps should have been punished further.

So Charlton held on for all three points that lifts their season's tally to 31, just nine short of their pre-season target for Premiership safety.

Despite the lack of players available to him, Wenger will have been disappointed that his world-class attacking players - Kanu and Robert Pires - failed to step into the breach left by Henry's absence, as makeshift striker Ljungberg and Parlour were the only real threats to the Charlton defence.

The Gunners boss hinted at the lack of attacking punch in his post-match analysis.

"With the exception of the penalty, despite dominating posession they did not really look like scoring," Wenger said.

"We were really unlucky to be 1-0 down at half time. In the last 20 minutes we should have come back.

"We should have created more but we were the victim of bad luck as well."