Middlesbrough	2 - 1	Arsenal
Scorers Downing (pen) 4 Sanli 74  Booked O'Neil 26 Rochemback 57	Half Time ( 1 - 0 )	Scorers Rosicky 90  Booked Toure 51 Clichy 52

Arsenal suffered defeat at the hands of an inspired Middlesbrough, their first defeat of the season.

Ex-Arsenal attacker Jeremie Aliadiere was fouled by Kolo Toure in the area and Stewart Downing slotted home from the spot to give Boro the lead.

Aresnal had very few chances throughout the game, one of those was a narrow miss by Emmanuel Adebayor who headed just wide of the target. Tuncay Sanli also came close for Middlesborough who missed by inches to increase their lead. But soon after Tuncay made no mistake and got the second of the day for Boro.

Tomas Rosicky scored a late goal for Arsenal, but it wasn't enough to rescue a point. Arsenal are now only 1 point clear of United after this lack lusture performance.

After not being deemed good enough to make the cut at Arsenal Jermie Aliadiere was influential in Arsenal's downfall today after creating the first goal of the afternoon. He was out running Toure who miss-timed his tackle to bring down Aliadiere in the area. Downing finished off the spot-kick which gave Boro more confidence.

Arsenal was on edge at the back and Emmanuel Eboue raised his hands at Emanuel Pogatetz but it was not punished. Boro challenged every ball and gave Arsenal no time to settle or to set-up any good passing moves which also resulted into Arsenal giving away the ball easily.

Despite their performance Arsenal had chances to draw level notably with Adebayor who rose above everybody else but failed to find the target. Soon after, Boro started to attack even stronger than before. But Tuncay failed to finish. Niklas Bendtner replaced Eduardo da Silva at half-time in a bid to get back into the game for Arsenal but he failed to make an impact.

Tuncay had another chance after being played clean through but failed to find the target. But Tuncay slotted his next chance home to make no mistake on a loose ball from George Boateng's shot.

Rosicky got an injury time goal for Arsenal but it proved to be nothing more than a consolation.

Boro recorded their first win in 11 games today. Arsenal will be hoping for the quick return of Cesc Fabregas, Robin van Persie, Alexander Hleb and Mathieu Flamini to help get back to winning ways.

Middlesbrough: Middlesbrough: Turnbull, Young, Wheater, Woodgate (Huth 73), Pogatetz, O'Neil, Boateng, Rochemback, Downing, Sanli (Johnson 90), Aliadiere (Arca 81).

Subs Not Used: Steele, Lee.

Arsenal: Arsenal: Almunia, Sagna, Toure, Gallas, Clichy, Eboue (Walcott 61), Diarra (Denilson 60), Silva, Rosicky, Eduardo (Bendtner 46), Adebayor.

Subs Not Used: Lehmann, Senderos.

Att: 26,428

Ref: Howard Webb (S Yorkshire).

By Ronan McKitterick