IT just gets better and better for Sam Allardyce, who is in danger of running out of superlatives in his assessment of his wonderful Wanderers.

At Leicester he was pinching himself, after beating Liverpool at the Reebok he was on cloud nine, then claimed even greater satisfaction at Elland Road where his own organisational skills and his team's honest endeavours knocked Leeds out of their Championship chasing stride.

But Saturday's draw at Highbury, where Wanderers were down to 10 men for an hour and where their defences were finally breached 16 minutes from time, supersedes the lot.

"To get anything at Arsenal is something very, very difficult to achieve with 11 men," he proudly pointed out. "Under the circumstances this has to be, without any question of a doubt, our best result of the season.

"The fact that the boys were down to 10 men for a long period of time and then, having finally been broken down, conjuring up a little bit of magic, was a magnificent performance.

"It was a wonderful occasion for them.

"I hope they can keep on improving and continue to show their quality. The players' determination is there for all to see."

Wanderers have not won many style marks on their way to the top but they have earned the respect of their rivals and grown in confidence.

"We get results," the manager says with understated simplicity. "And at the moment it's very important to get results from every game - home or away. We will become a very difficult side to beat.

"The players themselves now almost ... almost believe they won't get beat and this will reinforce that belief."

Furious when he saw Ricardo Gardner sent off on the half hour for little more than a nudge on Dennis Bergkamp, Allardyce was further incensed moments later when he saw surprise debutant Jermaine Johnson barged by Matthew Upson as he was about to shoot. And a check on video replays later did nothing to calm him.

"If you say the first is a sending off - which it wasn't - then, immediately after, an Arsenal player barged into Jermaine and got away with it," he argued. "Should we tell Jermaine to dive or stand on his feet. If it means getting a penalty, we'll ask him to dive!

"It's the consistency that is the problem for me. For us to go down to 10 men for something that really wasn't deserved, wasn't intentional, wasn't malicious, not a bad tackle - in fact, absolutely nothing - was ridiculous.

"If he hit him with anything it was a feather - and it wasn't even the ref's decision, it was his assistant who gave it. I couldn't believe it.

"Fortunately it didn't cost us a lot, I have to say."

And for that, Allardyce was grateful to his bravehearts for showing the resilience and determination to keep Arsenal at bay and then to respond positively and decisively after going a goal down.

"That recovery from going 1-0 down was something I don't think anybody expected," he said. "The most important thing was that we didn't concede another goal. But the quality of our defending, certainly from the back four and the goalkeeper, shone through. You also have to look at the midfield four who closed Arsenal down and limited them to just a couple of half chances rather than a succession of full chances.

"When they conceded the first goal I wondered if their heads would go down but the opportunity came for Rod Wallace, who has now contributed in the two games he has played since joining us, and Michael Ricketts' finish was absolutely superb.

"We deserved the 1-1 for our effort against an Arsenal side full of top quality players."