Fulham 1 Arsenal 3

	Patrick Vieira manages to hold off a Sean Davis challenge (PhilCole/Allsport)

Top of the Premiership, courtesy of victory in the Gallic derby at Craven Cottage.

Arsenal's season remains in its formative stage, but solidarity in the midst of so much inconsistency has weaned Arsene Wenger off his characteristic caution.

'I think we can stay at the top,' he insisted, after Fulham had been seen off by the peculiarly British virtue of persistence. 'Why not? Other teams are dropping points. It could be a lot closer than last year. We look very solid, especially away from home. We look determined, mentally right.'

Andy Melville, Fulham's captain, acknowledged the logic of Wenger's assessment that Arsenal would not have been flattered by a three-goal first-half lead.

A comeback which exposed Sol Campbell as a muscle-bound liability produced an unexpected equaliser, but was stalled by an involuntary save by David Seaman, from Sylvain Legwinski's far post header.

Jean Tigana will not care to dwell on the identity of Arsenal's match-winner. Thierry Henry was nurtured by Christian Califano, his assistant, at the French Football Academy at Clairefontaine, on the outskirts of Paris.

Henry's 82nd-minute goal was familiar. The pair, overseeing Fulham's installation as a credible Premiership force, have seen countless similar strikes down the years, an intelligent run and incisive right-footed shot. Dennis Bergkamp added a superfluous third in the fifth minute of injury-time, leaving Fulham to face the dilemma of turning praise into points. They will play worse, and win.

The French influence on the game was so pronounced it was a surprise the hawkers on the surrounding suburban streets were still selling burgers and Bovril, rather than baguettes and bouillabaisse. These are heady times at Craven Cottage. Touts litter the adjoining parkland, demanding £80 for tickets in the wooden throwback of the main stand.

Tigana's team, by contrast, is thor-oughly modern. Comparing Fulham with the usual underdogs propelled from the First Division is akin to confusing a Harrods hamper with a Happy Meal. Having spent roughly £1 million for each day of Fulham's brief tenure in the Premiership, Tigana can afford to ease record signing, £11.5m Steve Marlet, into his team. His 18-minute contribution was worryingly inauspicious.

Tigana espouses freedom of expression, preaches fluidity rather than fear. Mistakes will be made. But they are rationalised, excused.

That defiance of the blame culture was challenged as early as the 14th minute, when Arsenal went ahead with the type of avoidable goal that will drive Tigana back to his vineyard in Provence.

Patrick Vieira met a Robert Pires free-kick with a hopelessly misdirected header, which Pires retrieved near the bye-line before feeding Henry, on the right hand edge of the penalty area. His shot was deflected off the head of Kit Symons into the path of Freddie Ljungberg, unmarked on the edge of the six-yard box. The Swede required no further invitation.

Arsenal's collective strength, symbolised by the way they linked arms during the minute's silence, examined and exposed individual weaknesses. They passed the ball intelligently, matching speed with precision.

Lauren, whose attacking inclinations have hardly been subdued by his conversion to right-back, found an alarming amount of room. Francis Jeffers, who just failed to apply a scoring touch to Henry's squared pass on the half-hour, made an accomplished debut before he tired.

Arsenal were utterly dominant, but within three minutes of the restart, the alchemy of Tigana's management skills began to work.

Luis Boa Morte surged past Ashley Cole and the lumbering Campbell. A direct run, a perfectly weighted pull-back to the six-yard box and Steed Malbranque supplied an unexpected equaliser.

Suddenly, suggestions of Fulham's quality - Wenger expects them to finish in the top third of the table - did not seem so far-fetched.

They would have taken the lead but for the inner thigh of Seaman's standing leg, which parried Legwinski's header. The goalkeeper toe-poked the ball to safety.

Melville mused: 'Who knows what would have happened had that gone in?'

Once Louis Saha allowed Campbell to survive another moment of abject indecision, Arsenal made the question redundant.

Henry, put in by Ljungberg, sent a right footed shot across Van der Sar. Then Bergkamp, supplied from the left by fellow substitute Sylvain Wiltord, scored with a rising drive.