Aki Riihilahti shoved stuttering Arsenal off the top of the Premiership as Crystal Palace earned a well deserved point.
The Finnish midfielder pounced midway through the second half, an immediate response after Thierry Henry scored his 11th goal of the season to put Arsenal ahead.
While the Gunners have failed to win in their last four matches, Palace meanwhile showed why they are improving with each game after an indecisive start to the season with six successive defeats.
The first half saw plenty of endeavour from the Eagles, but they offered no shots to worry Jens Lehmann's goal. Obviously it was Iain Dowie's game plan to stifle the Gunners and rely on their top scorer Andy Johnson for the break when it arrived.
The Palace midfield kept to their task and Arsenal although they stroked the ball around impressively, were nevertheless being frustrated by their hosts.
Thierry Henry fired a snap shot after just ten minutes which was not far off Gabor Kiraly's right-hand post and Jose Antonio Reyes had a snap shot comfortably saved by the Hungarian keeper.
At the other end, it looked as if Lehman was going to boob again when he miskicked his intended clearance straight to Johnson and the ball went anxiously back across the Arsenal goal.
Thankfully for Lehmann he recovered in time before any damage was done.
Arsenal were enjoying the possession as Kolo Toure shot firmly but directed it straight into the arms of Kiraly, while Robert Pires should have done better after cutting inside from the left but from a good position shot too weakly to bother Kiraly.
Then just before the break, it looked as if Arsenal might have finally opened up the Eagles rearguard. Henry made ground along the left byline and crossed into the goalmouth, but Freddie Ljungberg arrived a fraction too late at the far post to round off the move.
The second half started with Arsenal looking for that elusive goal. Reyes was playing too deep but at least finding opportunities to unearth some space and fire a few efforts from outside the box.
But unusually for the Spanish hitman, his long-range efforts lacked power and Kiraly coped confidently.
Pascal Cygan got himself booked for a rough tackle on Johnson before Pires, who looked tired, fired over after Henry had set him up.
But it wasn't too long before Arsenal's pressure eventually paid off. A superb move was started by the impressive Cesc Fabregas, who found Ljungberg on the right touchline and the Swedish winger crossed low and hard into the box for Henry to get in front of his marker and steer the ball past Kiraly.
That was on 63 minutes, but within two minutes Palace were level. Substitute Vassilios Lakis found Johnson in space on the right and he crossed early for Riihilahti who made tremendous ground into the goalmouth to stab the ball past Lehmann.
A minute later, Palace could have gone ahead. Lakis started the move, again finding Johnson on the right and Johnson's cross this time was met by Lakis who somehow from just a yard out, blasted over the crossbar. A real let-off for the Gunners.
The Eagles were now playing with confidence and in spells, more than matches their illustrious opponents.
It was proving a real midfield tussle with Ben Watson and Riihilahti keeping a tight grip, while Michael Hughes was playing his heart out all over the place and he provided good support for Palace's lone striker Johnson.
They certainly weren't been over-rawed by Arsenal's Patrick Vieira and Pires who kept plugging away for the Gunners in their search to get Arsenal back into the game.
Even Ashley Cole was unable to make his usual darting runs down the left flank as the Palace rearguard of Tony Popovic and in particular Emmerson Boyce gave outstanding displays.
Johnson was proving a handful to the Arsenal defence, finding considerable amounts of space, but unfortunately for Palace they were unable to finish off his speedy runs. By the end, they were well content with a good night's work and a valuable point.
Man of the Match: Emmerson Boyce – The Palace defender was outstanding throughout after being given the task of taking over in central defence after the Eagles lost Gonzalo Sorondo when he was forced to leave with a leg injury.