The Sky Blues were sucked down closer to the relegation zone as a result of this defeat and perhaps more importantly their Swedish right back Roland Nilsson will play no further part in their season.

The hugely experienced Nilsson, capped 100 times by Sweden, had announced he would retire from English football at the end of his current contract in June. But his season now appears to have ended earlier than expected.

He suffered two cracked ribs in an accidental collision with Arsenal’s French midfielder Emmanuel Petit and was rushed to hospital with a suspected punctured lung. It looks as though Marc Edworthy, a long suffering substitute, will play the remaining games as City fight tooth and nail for Premiership survival.

Coventry, hit badly by suspensions and injuries, carried none of the firepower capable of upsetting Arsenal’s assault on Manchester United’s leadership at the top of the table.

They were without Noel Whelan and John Aloisi through suspensions and George Boateng and Paul Williams through injuries, while their influential skipper Gary McAllister was able to play only after a last minute fitness test.

The Scot had been under extensive medical treatment throughout the week after spraining his ankle against Blackburn Rovers seven days earlier. But he badly wanted to play because he has every chance of being recalled to Scotland’s team for the international match against Bosnia on Saturday.

McAllister cruelly missed the World Cup Finals in France because of a torn cruciate knee ligament, an injury which would have been career threatening only a few years ago.

But the former Leicester City and Leeds United midfielder fought back from surgery and has shown such good form that Scotland’s manager Craig Brown recalled him to the squad and he has every chance of winning his 51^st cap.

But Coventry found they had too many players missing at Highbury. Barry Quinn, a youngster whom Gordon Strachan forecasts will have a big future in the sport, found himself alongside McAllister but both are playmakers when maybe a ball winner would have been more advantageous.

In the middle of the defence Coventry are missing the abrasive qualities of Paul Williams. He has missed three matches through a problem with his sciatic nerve and Mo Konjic, who will play for Bosnia against Scotland at the weekend, understandably does not have the same rapport with Richard Shaw.

It has all conspired to off balance Coventry’s working unit. Strachan attempted to combat the lack of bodies by stringing five players across midfield with Darren Huckerby ploughing a lonely and exhausting furrow on his own up front.

The plan was exposed in the 16^th minute when Ray Parlour celebrated his England recall by striking the first goal.

Anelka’s decoy run to the right of the penalty area drew the defence and Parlour coolly checked inside David Burrows before shooting low past Magnus Hedman.

The champions were now in dominant mood and Sky Blues were on the receiving end of a barrage of shots most of which Hedman dealt with in fine style.

But he had no chance ten minutes from the end when Arsenal scored their second goal. Kanu, on as a late substitute, won the ball from Shaw and slid it sideways to Marc Overmars. His angled shot made it 2-0.

Coventry had their usual cause for complaint about the refereeing. Steve Froggatt was clearly impeded by Arsenal’s goalkeeper David Seaman in the 39^th minute, but referee Paul Alcock waved aside the appeals.

Even Arsenal’s manager Arsene Wenger thought otherwise. He said:

"At the time I did not think it was a penalty but having seen the replay it does look like a penalty."

ARSENAL:
Seaman; Dixon (Ljunberg, 29 mins), Keown, Adams, Winterburn; Parlour, Viera, Petit, Overmars (Diawara, 84 mins); Bergkamp, Anelka (Kanu, 77 mins)
Subs not used: Bould, Manninger

COVENTRY:
Hedman; Nilsson (Edworthy, 69 mins), Shaw, Konjic, Burrows; Telfer, Soltvedt (Gioacchini, 77 mins), McAllister, Quinn, Froggatt; Huckerby
Subs not used: Clement, Delorge, Ogrizovic

GOALS: Parlour (16 mins), Overmars (80 mins)

BOOKINGS:
Arsenal - Winterburn (foul, 43 mins)
Coventry – Telfer (foul, 26 mins), Konjic (foul, 53 mins)

REFEREE: Paul Alcock (Halstead)