Oxfordshire referee Dermot Gallagher was at the centre of a new storm last night when he failed to send off Arsenal's Dennis Bergkamp in the Barclaycard Premiership clash at Blackburn Rovers.

The Banbury official, who in the past has been disciplined for being too lenient, did not even issue a yellow card when Bergkamp reacted to some holding by Nils-Eric Johansson by shaking off the Swede, hitting him in the mouth.

To rub salt in the wounds for Blackburn, Bergkamp then scored his second goal of the night to earn the Gunners a 3-2 victory, which puts them just a point behind leaders Manchester United, with a game in hand.

At the time, Arsenal were down to ten men, Gallagher having already sent off right back Oleg Luzhny for two bookable offences.

After the match, Blackburn boss Graeme Souness said: "If you smack someone in the mouth you have to go. They bring these rules in and some referees adhere to them and some referees don't.

"There's no way Bergkamp should have been on the pitch.

"Normally, I would be a bit reticent, but I saw it, I saw my player being smacked in the mouth by Bergkamp and Bergkamp scores the winning goal, so I'm absolutely delighted about that as you can imagine."

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger rejected Souness's claims, saying: "I did not see anything wrong with what Dennis Bergkamp did."

Wenger insisted Luzhny should not have been red-carded. He said: "I think the sending-off was not deserved at all. The first booking was quite harsh and with the second, he didn't touch the player at all and the video shows that."

The controversies overshadowed a thrilling match where the Gunners went 2-0 up through Bergkamp and Thierry Henry, Blackburn fighting back to 2-2 with Jansen scoring twice, only for Bergkamp to steal the winner.

Newcastle came from 1-0 down at half-time to beat Tottenham 3-1 and stay in third place.

Chelsea captain Marcel Desailly insisted his side can still win the title as they revived their challenge with a 2-0 win over Leeds United at Stamford Bridge.

Emile Heskey's first goal since November, kept Liverpool in fourth place as the beat bottom club Leicester City 1-0.

Yesterday's's results

FA BARCLAYCARD PREMIERSHIP

Aston Villa 0, Everton 0; Blackburn 2, Arsenal 3; Chelsea 2, Leeds 0; Ipswich 1, Fulham 0; Liverpool 1, Leicester 0; Southampton 2, West Ham 0; Tottenham 1, Newcastle 3.

NATIONWIDE LEAGUE

Division 1: Man City 2, Millwall 0; Nott'm 0, Portsmouth 1.

Division 2: Colchester 1, Swindon 3.

LDV-VANS TROPHY

Southern area final 1st leg: Cambridge Utd 0, Bristol City 0.

SCOTTISH PREMIER LEAGUE

Kilmarnock 2, Rangers 2; Livingston 1, Celtic 3.

DR MARTENS LEAGUE

Eastern Division: Corby Tn 1, Banbury Utd 1.

CHERRY RED RECORDS

HELLENIC LEAGUE

Anagram Records Cup 1st round: Almondsbury v Carterton Tn pp.

RUGBY UNION

Oxford Univ 24, Penguins 20.

Tonight's football

Nationwide League

Division 1: Preston v Watford.

Division 2: Brighton v Cardiff.