AFTER making more than 450 first-team appearances for Arsenal, Middlesbrough midfielder Ray Parlour was presented with a glass memento on his first return to Highbury.

For a brief ten-minute period at the start of the second half it looked as though he would be leaving the ground having helped to shatter Arsenal's dreams of equalling Nottingham Forest's record of 42 unbeaten league games.

When Franck Queudrue fired Middlesbrough into a 3-1 lead in the 53rd minute, it looked like Middlesbrough were on course for one of the biggest shocks of this, or any other, Premiership season.

After going unbeaten for almost a year and a half, Arsenal were in grave danger of losing both their opening home game and their air of invincibility.

But, in the manner of true champions, Dennis Bergkamp and Jose Antonio Reyes delivered three goals in the space of 11 minutes to crush Boro's dreams of only their second Highbury win since April 1939.

Steve McClaren's side showed immense heart to recover from the blow of going a goal behind midway through the first half.

They also displayed immense attacking skill as Joseph-Desire Job, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Queudrue produced three wonderful strikes to leave Arsenal rocking.

But they were ultimately undone by an inability to shut up shop when the situation demanded it.

The defence went backwards, and the midfield went missing as a wave of red shirts swept the Gunners into the history books.

Mark Viduka was the last player to score a winner against Arsenal on the Premiership stage, but the Boro striker's suspension meant he was unable to repeat the dramatic late strike that handed the title to Manchester United in 2003.

Gareth Southgate and Ugo Ehiogu were also missing through injury, so veteran centre-half Colin Cooper was handed the captain's armband on his 400th appearance for the club.

He partnered Chris Riggott at the heart of the Boro backline and, after his first-half howler against Newcastle last weekend, the former Derby defender was quickly undone again as the visitors' goal led a charmed life.

Bergkamp turned him inside out after racing onto Thierry Henry's intelligent seventh-minute through ball but, after Mark Schwarzer has saved the Dutchman's strike, Cooper was forced into an acrobatic goalline clearance to keep out Freddie Ljungberg's follow-up effort.

That still wasn't that though, as Cooper's clearance ricocheted off Reyes before rebounding to safety off Schwarzer's left-hand post.

Parlour had given Steve McClaren the lowdown on how to beat Arsenal last week and, while luck would almost certainly have come into the equation somewhere, the efforts of a 37-year-old centre-half wouldn't.

But Cooper, who will turn 38 in February, was the main reason it took the Gunners 25 minutes to open their Highbury account. The Boro stalwart made two crucial interceptions to rob Reyes and Henry as Arsenal utterly dominated possession before the break.

But, while the visitors were constantly camped in their own half, they looked to have weathered the home side's anticipated early storm until Cooper was finally unable to dig his side out of trouble midway through the first half.

Reyes' searching long ball sent Henry galloping clear and, while Cooper came tantalisingly close to producing his second goalline clearance of the game, the Frenchman's deft lob over the advancing Schwarzer was measured to perfection.

Henry almost added a second in equally eye-catching fashion two minutes before the break, rattling the crossbar with a flashing 25-yard free-kick but, incredibly, that chance was the precursor to a Boro equaliser that was as sublime as it was surprising.

After spending the first 43 minutes on the edge of his own penalty area, Queudrue suddenly found himself charging at the heart of the Arsenal defence.

His one-two with Hasselbaink ended in a stabbed through ball to Job and, despite being almost invisible for the rest of the first half, the Cameroon international kept his head to drill an instinctive strike into Jens Lehmann's top corner.

That was unexpected, but what followed in the first 15 minutes after the interval was almost unbelievable.

First, Patrick Cygan failed to deal with Queudrue's raking long ball, allowing Hasselbaink a free run on goal from the inside right channel.

The flying Dutchman was a regular thorn in Arsenal's side during his four-year spell at local rivals Chelsea, and his Indian sign over the Gunners continued as he rifled an unstoppable drive past Lehmann's left hand.

Then three minutes later, not content with laying on the first two goals, Queudrue weighed in with a sensational strike of his own to fire Boro into a two-goal lead.

There looked to be little on when the Frenchman picked up the ball 30 yards from goal, but he unleashed a vicious swerving strike that found its way into the bottom corner of the net.

At 3-1, Boro were in dreamland, but they awoke with a start just 60 seconds later as Dennis Bergkamp extended the game's run of golden goals to reduce Arsenal's arrears.

For once, Cooper was guilty of dropping off as Bergkamp was allowed to run unchallenged for ten yards before drilling home a low strike from the edge of the area.

Back to 3-2 but, after spending the whole of last season extending an incredible unbeaten run, Arsenal could still sense history slipping through their fingertips.

It is often claimed that titles are won and lost in a small number of pivotal moments.

It might only be the second weekend of the campaign but, if Arsene Wenger's side do retain their Premiership title, the 65th minute of yesterday's game will be as important as any other passage of play all season.

And, if Henry was the lynchpin of Arsenal's title success last term, Reyes already looks as though he could be the brightest of their galaxy of stars this time around.

The Spaniard showed a striker's instinct to convert Henry's low centre at the back post and haul Arsenal level in the 65th minute, before displaying a midfielder's flair to dump Michael Reiziger on his backside and fire across Schwarzer after Boro had conceded possession from the resultant kick-off.

Two goals in the space of a minute to turn the game - one more reason why Arsenal will remain the team to beat this season.

As if to emphasise their superiority, Henry turned in substitute Robert Pires' injury-time cross to give the scoreline a gloss few could argue it deserved.

The day had started with Patrick Vieira receiving a replica of the Premiership trophy in the centre circle. If Arsenal show the same commitment and brilliance for the next nine months, it will end with him picking up the real thing in May.

Result: Arsenal 5 Middlesbrough 3.

Read more about Middlesbrough here.