Bill Edgar's tactical analysis

Alex McLeish was a reliable servant to Sir Alex Ferguson when they were defender and manager at Aberdeen two decades ago and on Saturday, McLeish helped his fellow Scot out again as his Birmingham City team denied Arsenal victory. The two points dropped by the North London side allowed Ferguson’s Manchester United to regain the leadership of the Barclays Premier League – not that McLeish saw things that way.

“I’m in it for Birmingham City and Alex McLeish,” he said. “We’ve done ourselves a real favour but I’m sure Alex will be delighted. I spoke to him after our game at Old Trafford [a 1-0 defeat for Birmingham] and mentioned that we were coming down to Arsenal. He said, ‘Good luck, I hope you take something from the game.’

“We’re proud of that performance. It wasn’t a beautiful performance because we were playing a team with unbelievable ability. We’re still not perfect when we can go to Huddersfield and lose [in the FA Cup nine days ago], but our workrate between then and now was night and day.”

It helped Birmingham’s cause that Arsenal were below par as they dropped points at home for only the second time this season. Cesc Fàbregas struggled to find colleagues with his passes after being rested for the previous two matches and, as so often, the rest of the team seemed to take their cue from him. However, Arsène Wenger, the manager, also accepted a share of the blame.

“Coming out of the dressing-room [after the interval] we conceded a goal straight away from a corner when we were not focused and I take full responsibility,” he said. “We were bad and I include myself in that. Other teams have come and defended well, but when you are quick and sharp enough you can open them up.”

Emmanuel Adebayor put Arsenal ahead with an early penalty after Stephen Kelly was ruled, harshly, to have fouled Eduardo da Silva, but he later ducked out of the way of Sebastian Larsson’s corner kick as Garry O’Connor equalised for Birmingham with the help of a deflection off Fàbregas. The Togo forward’s action was in contrast with the physical courage shown by Damien Johnson, the Birmingham captain, who suffered a fractured cheekbone a fortnight ago but played with a mask covering the injury and headed the ball fearlessly.

“You’re trying to make me some sort of hero,” Johnson said. “It’s not like that. The injury was fine as long as I didn’t take any direct blows to it and I didn’t.”

McLeish was more impressed. “I like players who show that bravery,” he said. “Plenty of players I’ve played with would never have contemplated playing today. We had a lot of great characters on the pitch today.”

Arsenal (4-4-2): M Almunia 7 – B Sagna 6 (sub: A Diaby, 83min), P Senderos 6, W Gallas 6, G Clichy 6 – T Walcott 3 (sub: N Bendtner, 65 6), F Fàbregas 4, M Flamini 5, A Hleb 7 – Eduardo da Silva 5, E Adebayor 5. Substitutes not used: J Lehmann, Gilberto Silva, J Hoyte. Booked: Hleb. Next: Fulham (a).

Birmingham City (4-4-2): M Taylor 7 – S Kelly 6, L Ridgewell 7, R Schmitz 7, F Queudrue 6 (sub: S Parnaby 61 7) – S Larsson 7, F Muamba 6, D Johnson 8, O Kapo 6 – C Jerome 6 (sub: G McSheffrey, 74), G O’Connor 6 (sub: M Forssell, 76). Substitutes not used: C Doyle, M Taylor. Booked: Kapo, Ridgewell. Next: Chelsea (h).

Referee P Dowd
Attendance 60,037