It could have so easily been more had Wanderers substitute Ricardo Vaz-Te not fired straight at Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann in the dying moments of the match.

Lehmann incured the wrath of the Reebok faithful for the most part of the game after going down under an early challenge which wasn't as bad as the German made it out to be .

The hosts managed to contain their London opponents very well and it was largely down to midfielder Abdoulaye Diagne-Faye who was compared to Gunners great Patrick Vieira in midweek.

Arsenal tried to play the ball via their midfield to the wingers but any route on goal for Freddie Ljungberg and Robert Pires was blocked by wing backs Ricardo Gardner and Joey O'Brien.

Ljungberg did manage to get a rare Arsenal cross into the danger zone after the quarter hour mark but teenage midfielder Cesc Fabregas was unable to get any power on his headed effort to beat Jussi Jaaskelainen in Bolton's goal.

On 20 minutes the Wanderers took a deserved lead when Abdoulaye Diagne-Faye netted his first goal for the club with a fine header which left Lehmann well beaten.

Joey O'Brien picked the ball up on the right and his cross eluded everyone in the area only for Stelios Giannakopoulos to punt the ball back into the danger zone for Faye to score the opener.

It was the Senegal international's first full game since completing a permanent move to the club at the tail end of last week and the goal was worthy of the performance that he put in.

With fifteen minutes of the half remaining Bolton went two goals to the good through Stelios Giannakopoulos. The Greek fired home a first time shot past Lehmann after Kevin Davies determined play had robbed Gilberto Silva of possession down the right.

Arsenal began to step up a gear as the half came to a close and they where unlucky not to have pulled a goal back when Thierry Henry's well calculated volley came back off the post.

Brazilian midfielder Gilberto Silva also tried to make amends for his earlier error six minutes from the break but his 18-yard shot went wide of Jussi Jaaskelainen's right hand post.

Kevin Nolan nearly added a third Bolton goal to the contest with a sublime shot on the volley following Sol Campbell's partial header away from the danger area but Lehmann did well to tip aside the effort which looked bound for the top corner.

After the break Arsenal carried on where they had left off in the first half and Henry hit the post with a curling effort on 50 minutes only to see the rebound effort from Robert Pires saved by Jaaskelainen from just five yards out

Faye had the ball in the back of the Arsenal net on 67 minutes but referee Howard Webb adjudged the Bolton player to have used his hands rather than his head.

This sparked further protests from the Arsenal players and Lehmann in particular as they wanted Faye to be shown his second yellow card of the game but Mr Webb was lenient with the Wanderers favourite.

Ricardo Vaz-Te was introduced as a late substitute for Bolton and his jinking run past Arsenal full back Emmanuele Eboue sparked further life into the home side.

The Portuguese youngster nearly fired home the winning goal with five minutes left on the clock but he fired straight at Lehmann when faced with a route through on goal.

Impressive midfield ace Faye ended the game in disappointing fashion as he was substituted after stretching awkwardly to try and block an Arsenal attack on goal.

Bolton will be brimming with confidence at this result and will go into next weekend's game against Aston Villa looking for more of the same. Arsenal on the other hand will want to blot out any references made to "Bolton Wanderers" or "The Reebok Stadium"

Bolton Wanderers: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Joey O'Brien, Tal Ben-Haim, Bruno N'Gotty, Ricardo Gardner, Kevin Nolan, Abdoulaye Diagne-Faye (Radhi Jaidi), Gary Speed, Stelios Giannakopoulos (Ricardo Vaz-Te), Kevin Davies, El-Hadji Diouf

Subs Not Used: Ian Walker, Jay-Jay Okocha, Khalilou Fadiga

Arsenal: Jens Lehmann, Lauren (Emmanuel Eboue), Kolo Toure, Sol Campbell, Pascal Cygan, Freddie Ljungberg, Cesc Fabregas (Jose Antonio Reyes), Gilberto Silva, Robert Pires, Robin Van Persie (Dennis Bergkamp), Thierry Henry

Subs Not Used: Manuel Almunia, Mathieu Flamini, Phillippe Senderos

Referee:

Howard Webb

Attendance:

26,792

Booked:

Abdoulaye Diagne-Faye (Bolton)

Lauren (Arsenal)

Pascal Cygan (Arsenal)

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS