Charlton surprise Arsenal

Published November 5, 2001

LONDON, Nov 4: Charlton Athletic produced one of the shocks of the season on Sunday when they came from behind to stun championship-chasing Arsenal 4-2 at Highbury.

Arsenal would have gone second behind Leeds United with a victory and seemed certain to get it after Thierry Henry scored in the seventh minute.

But though Arsenal ripped through the Charlton defence almost at will in the opening half hour, hitting the post once, they could not add to their tally and were caught out when Steve Brown converted Charlton’s first chance as he glanced in a header from a free kick in the 37th minute.

It got worse for the hosts six minutes later when, under pressure from Jason Euell, goalkeeper Richard Wright messed up his attempted punch and saw the ball skid over his own head and into the net for an own-goal.

There was no luck involved in Charlton’s third four minutes after the break as Danish international Claus Jensen produced a sublime chip after Patrick Vieira had been caught in possession and the Arsenal defence was left standing again four minutes later when Euell broke through and produced a calm finish to put the visitors 4-1 up.

Henry pulled one back soon after from the spot after being felled by Mark Fish but Charlton, who had won only two of their 10 previous league games this season, worked tirelessly from then on and held out for a famous victory.

Sunday’s results:

Arsenal 2 Charlton Athletic 4

Chelsea 2 Ipswich Town 1

Leeds United 2 Tottenham Hotspur 1

Liverpool 3 Manchester United 1

—Reuters

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