EL-HADJI Diouf walked off with the man of the match honours once again but Sam Allardyce insisted on giving Jussi Jaaskelainen joint top billing as he reflected on Wanderers' stunning Reebok triumph over Arsenal.

"Jussi made a major contribution to us winning the game because his big saves came at the right time," said the Whites boss as he delighted in a first shut-out in 16 attempts.

"It frustrated Arsenal by letting them know there was no way through. For me, Jussi's performance was on a par with Dioufy's.

"Everybody else played on top of their game."

Allardyce was ecstatic as he saw Wanderers maintain their unbeaten start to 2005 with a victory no-one expected. They were rank outsiders with the bookies at 5-1 but, on what might prove to be the defining afternoon in the Premiership title race - Chelsea ended the day 10 points clear - he tasted victory for the first time in eight epic duels with Arsene Wenger.

It was a triumph for planning and organisation as Allardyce identified weaknesses in the Arsenal defence and his hard-working players carried out their orders, exploiting the nervousness of goalkeeper Manuel Almunia and giving the in-form Diouf licence to stretch Sol Campbell and Kolo Toure.

Video sessions had highlighted Arsenal's vulnerability to crosses to the back post and the research paid off handsomely when Stelios got up to head the winner from Diouf's cross on 41 minutes.

But it was the clean sheet that gave Allardyce most satisfaction.

"One wouldn't have expected to get our third of the season against Arsenal," the manager said. "If we were going to get a win, I thought we would have to score more than one.

"But we deserved our victory for our overall performance. While technically and skill-wise we're not as good as Arsenal, as everybody knows, our commitment, organisation and the exposing of their weaknesses was there in abundance and reaped us our reward.

"As always against the big boys, scoring first rattles them and we did that.

"We had a bit of luck but you always need that but we defended well and, when they did get through us, we had some great saves from the goalkeeper. The goal was a great finish just before half-time but I was worried, when we didn't get the extra goal, that it might cost us.

"But we saw the game out magnificently."

Allardyce has built a reputation for upsetting the Premiership's top clubs - famously with successive wins at Old Trafford and last season at Chelsea - but he rated Saturday's victory as the most satisfying of the lot.

"It's the best because it came at the Reebok," he said. "All the others have come away so beating Arsenal at home, for the fans and everyone at the club, was absolutely fantastic.

"We came close to doing it twice here against Manchester United and missed out each time in the last few seconds. I'd have been bitterly disappointed if we had let this one slip.

"We've shown a lot of character, bouncing back after coming through a difficult period and getting a win that should give us the confidence we need to push on and try to get into the top half and stay there.""

Despite taking seven points from their last three games, Wanderers are still in the bottom half of the table - a consequence of under-performing against some of the lesser sides in the division, much to the manager's annoyance.

"The upside is that we've done well against the big boys but the downside is that we haven't done the job against the smaller clubs," he said. "We haven't got to this level of performance.

"Had we done so we would not have lost six on the trot and we'd have probably won four or five more. That's the really disappointing thing about the season up to now.

"Had the bread and butter stuff been better, we wouldn't be talking about getting back in the top six, we'd be talking about maintaining our position and pushing for Europe.

"But that's behind us now. The size of this victory against the size of this team tells everybody that Bolton are back on song, full of confidence, full of running again and, hopefully, we can turn the season round."