Arsenal began the New Year by inflicting their first significant blow of the season on a title rival, but only after surviving a late fightback by Chelsea at Highbury.

Having drawn against Chelsea and Liverpool, as well as losing at Manchester United, Arsene Wenger's side finally managed to damage the title challenge of Claudio Ranieri's team.

Marcel Desailly's own goal was all that separated the sides until Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Thierry Henry looked to have made sure of victory in the final 10 minutes.

However, Mario Stanic and Emmanuel Petit struck within the space of just over two minutes to ensure Arsenal a nervous finale before they confirmed an eight-point advantage over their London rivals.

Arsenal would have been in an even more dominant position without Paul Scholes' late winner for Manchester United at Old Trafford.

But there was still considerable relief at the final whistle after Chelsea's desperate late surge for an equaliser.

Amid pouring rain, the visitors, with another six alterations to their ever-changing line-up, immediately announced their intention to take the game to the Premiership leaders.

Enrique de Lucas burst into the penalty area but he mis-hit his shot wide and, with just nine minutes gone, all of the visitors' early pressure had counted for nothing when they went behind.

The goal was a classic Arsenal counter-attack, with Robert Pires firing a crossfield ball into the path of the surging figure of Ashley Cole.

His cross found Dennis Bergkamp and while the Dutchman failed to make clean contact with the ball, it bounced, via an apparent deflection off Desailly, into the ground and over Carlo Cudicini into the net.

That was the cue for Arsenal to start imposing themselves in midfield, although it was still a largely scrappy affair in which the Gunners' main threat continued to come on the break.

Graeme Le Saux did test out David Seaman with a firm drive which the Arsenal keeper did well enough to parry but even better to recover and dive on the rebound ahead of Hasselbaink.

Otherwise, however, Chelsea started to lose their way, with Sylvain Wiltord and Patrick Vieira both threatening to extend Arsenal's advantage.

And although the visitors again started positively after the restart, with Seaman gathering a snap-shot from de Lucas, Arsenal almost responded in exactly the same way as the first-half.

Henry's pace and power took him clear of William Gallas but his cutback went just inches behind Gilberto as the Brazilian raced into the penalty area unmarked.

The Frenchman continued to pose the greatest menace, with his incredible pace taking him past first Gallas and then Desailly as he twice threatened Cudicini's goal.

Arsenal's lead nevertheless continued to be slender and both managers looked to seize a tactical advantage as the game wore on.

On came Jesper Gronkjaer for Chelsea to give more penetration. Wenger countered with van Bronckhorst down the same flank and then replaced Wiltord with Lauren on the other wing.

Ranieri's response was to bring on Eidur Gudjohnsen up front, with Gianfranco Zola moving deeper, before the Italian hobbled off, to be replaced by Stanic.

Wenger, meanwhile, made his own final move, with Kolo Toure on for Bergkamp, and Henry therefore left as his team's only real attacking outlet.

That, however, was reckoning without van Bronckhorst's superb 20-yard finish to cap a move which he started with a crunching tackle on the halfway line before Henry provided the vital link.

Just a minute later, Henry looked to have made sure of victory as he cut inside Gallas and delivered a shot which Cudicini should have saved only to see the ball bobble through his grasp and into the net.

However, Chelsea were, even then, amazingly still not out of it.

First, Stanic headed home from point-blank range after Hasselbaink had nodded a corner back across the six-yard area with four minutes left.

And then Seaman collided with Sol Campbell to provide Petit with an open goal against his former club to spark a frantic finale before the Gunners eventually prevailed.

Teams

Arsenal: Seaman, Cole, Campbell, Keown, Luzhny, Wiltord (Lauren 69), Silva, Vieira, Pires (van Bronckhorst 56), Bergkamp (Toure 79), Henry.

Subs Not Used: Jeffers, Taylor.

Goals: Desailly 9 og, van Bronckhorst 81, Henry 82.

Chelsea: Cudicini, Melchiot, Gallas, Desailly, Babayaro, Le Saux (Gudjohnsen 70), Petit, Lampard, De Lucas (Gronkjaer 56), Zola (Stanic 79), Hasselbaink.

Subs Not Used: de Goey, Terry.

Goals: Stanic 85, Petit 86.

Att: 38,096

Ref: U Rennie (S Yorkshire).