Bolton 1 Arsenal 1

Emerson Thome was given a starting berth in the Bolton defence and Gael Clichy came in for the suspended Ashley Cole in the Arsenal side.

Bolton started well, quickly denying The Gunners any space in which to work the ball in midfield.

And they almost took the lead after only seven minutes when Kevin Davies' shot on the turn was smartly saved by Jens Lehmann in the Arsenal goal.

Three minutes later, Kevin Nolan got on the end of a Kevin Davies flick on but only managed to shoot at Lehmann.

Lehmann was called upon again when a driven Jay-Jay Okocha cross was smothered at the second attempt by the German, with Davies looking to pounce on any mistake.

Arsenal hit back through Thierry Henry, who finished a smart piece of ball juggling outside the area with a half volley which flashed wide of the Bolton goal.

The Gunners' best chance in the first half fell to the mercurial Henry, who floated his shot just wide of Jussi Jaaskelainen's post following a Robert Pires corner.

Bolton quickly went down the other end and almost scored themselves, but Youri Djorkaeff shot well over the bar after good work by Nolan.

Kolo Toure's mazy run on the half hour let in Dennis Bergkamp, but he only managed to slice wide with the goal at his mercy.

The lively Nolan then managed to wriggle past Pascal Cygan on 33 but his shot was turned past the far post by Lehmann.

The game began to get niggly after the break, with Ivan Campo and Patrick Vieira finding their way into referee Graham Poll's book after committing needless fouls.

Arsenal made the breakthrough on 57 minutes when Henry fed Freddie Ljungberg, whose shot was well saved by Jaaskelainen but Pires was on hand to tuck in the rebound.

The official then awarded Bolton a free kick two minutes later following a hefty challenge by Sol Campbell on Kevin Davies.

Okocha's effort, however, hit the outside of Lehmann's left hand post and the London side breathed a collective sigh of relief.

The Nigerian then found some space in the Arsenal area but his shot ended up safely in Lehmann's arms.

Arsene Wenger felt he had to bolster the midfield and sent Ray Parlour on for the ineffective Bergkamp on 63 minutes.

Okocha then flashed a shot wide after Arsenal half-cleared a Bolton corner, as the home side worked hard to find an equaliser.

Sam Allardyce then threw on Henrik Pedersen, who was the hero against Chelsea a week earlier, to lend some weight to the Bolton attack.

The hard-working Campo thought he was on the receiving end of another yellow card following a hefty challenge on Henry, but he escaped punishment.

Allardyce then opted to substitute Campo for the former Milan winger Ibrahim Ba in a bid to bring a little more invention to the right wing.

Bolton's pressure paid off on 83, when a Pascal Cygan clearance fell kindly to substitute Pedersen, who lashed a superb volley past the helpless Lehmann to make it 1-1.

Henry tried his best to get the winning goal but his shot was comfortably saved by Jaaskelainen at his far post.

However, Arsenal held on under relentless pressure from the home side to keep it all square, but it could have been so much worse for The Gunners.