Vieira, seeing his eighth red card in Arsenal colours, left his team with 10 men and minus their captain just five minutes into the second half when his lunge at Jesper Gronkjaer was declared worthy of a second yellow by referee Andy D’Urso.

His first had been for bringing down Gianfranco Zola 34 minutes into the match. And it led to the free-kick which Zola chipped up from around 40 yards intending to find a scoring head inside the crowded Arsenal penalty area.

Instead Eidur Gudjohnsen and William Gallas both flung themselves forward and missed it – and, sadly for Arsenal, so did Seaman who had to suffer a repeat of his World Cup willies as the ball bounced almost apologetically beyond his belated, unsighted dive.

For Seaman, 39 later this month, it was yet another of those moments of horror that have occasionally spotted his distinguished career. And his rueful expression when the teams left the field at the interval said it all. He knew he had fluffed again.

And yet with Arsenal it is never a lost cause – although when Vieira went off five minutes after the break it certainly looked that way this time.

Chelsea must already have been congratulating themselves on the brilliant prospect of ending their London rivals’ unbeaten run – now 21 away games without defeat – as well as Arsenal’s seven-year dominance at Stamford Bridge where they have not lost a Premiership match since September 1995.

But just before the hour Arsenal proved once again that 10 men can work just as hard and as well as 11 – and they had a new name to put on the scoresheet.

Kolo Toure, Wenger’s 21-year-old signing from the Ivory Coast, who had replaced limping Brazilian Edu just three minutes before Chelsea’s freak goal, started and finished the equaliser in only his third appearance as a substitute.

He ran strongly at the Chelsea defence, laid the ball off wide for Ashley Cole and continued his run into the six-yard box. It paid off handsomely when Cole’s cross was volleyed by Sylvain Wiltord and Carlo Cudicini could only palm it out - straight onto Toure’s head and the rest was easy.

If anything Arsenal’s depleted forces should have won it after that. With 16 minutes left, Ray Parlour was away onto Kanu’s clever pass but took too long to create space away from the covering Marcel Desailly and was robbed by sub Mario Stanic.

Chelsea, inevitably, set up a grandstand finish but a flurry of corners came to nothing and when the final whistle sounded it was, ironically, Seaman who held the ball in a firm grasp.

Before his error, neither side had looked like scoring. Without the injured Thierry Henry there looked a strong possibility Arsenal might fail to score for the first timed in 43 games.

Parlour and Wiltord failed to snap up half chances and Chelsea created little more, thanks to the power and dominance of Sol Campbell and Martin Keown.

The tackles were flying early on, with Frank Lampard and the reckless Graeme Le Saux yellow carded for Chelsea, although in Le Saux’s defence he had been elbowed by Parlour just a minute or two earlier.

The action though was almost as hot as the weather, although at times the creativity melted away in a sea of strong challenges.

Both sides remain unbeaten after four games but they will have to improve on this display to ensure the Premiership title stays in London.