After the most difficult week in a while for Arsenal (in fact, since the last one - about a month ago), what better than a game against Manchester United to get back on track. Before the game, most seemed to think that we would get beaten and beaten badly; whilst a few had a sneaking suspicion that having struggled lately, we would never be more likely to turn around and beat the Mancs. We were of course all hoping for the latter. In the papers before the game, Nicklas Bendtner was getting lots of press, being pretty much our only striker available. Arsene Wenger was also full of fighting talk - chatting about how our problems aren't due to inexperience, and how a player can be intelligent at 20, or stupid at 30. Fabregas and Gallas seem to bear that out.So to the game, which overall was a pulsating and enthralling game, one of those games that makes people trot out the cliches about the Premier League being the best in the world. End to end stuff, both teams doing lots of attacking, and plenty of excitement from start to finish. Arsenal probably shaded the chances created, and definitely made more of theirs, which on the day was the difference between the two teams. The pundits were purring afterwards, and this time, for once, they were right.
Nicklas Bendtner was quiet, but did some very important work up front, allowing Nasri to step up and score the 2 goals. Denilson had his best game for a while, working hard in midfield, and the defence (Clichy in particular - again - as well as Almunia) had a good game. By contrast, Manchester United were wasteful in front of goal, Wayne Rooney especially having a bad day at the office (after his recent run of such good form as well - shame!). On another day, with Arsenal finishing like they had against Fenerbahce, and United finishing like we know they can, United could have won this game 4-0. But they didn't, they lost it 2-1, which sparked an all day party in Islington.
The size of the party was all the bigger, given the fact that we seemed to have been playing against 12 men at times. The referee was fussy in penalising Arsenal players, and didn't seem to apply the same standards to the other team. In the first 20 minutes, Wayne Rooney amazingly escaped a booking for a cynical and deliberate hack on Theo Walcott, and we then saw 2 Arsenal players booked for essentially the same offence. Then at the end, the referee added 6 minutes of injury time, which seemed like the longest 6 minutes ever. The 6 minutes were probably just about merited, but it did seem to add to the feeling that Howard Webb was trying to afford Manchester United every advantage. You won't hear that on TV, but that was definitely how it seemed from the stands.
Anyway, sod the referee, even he couldn't take victory away from us. Arsene Wenger has said that our title fortunes this year will depend on how we do against the big 4, and this was a good start. It is very frustrating that we can beat the best of the best, but insist on making title challenges so difficult by capitulating to crap teams. Still, I will never, ever tire of watching Arsenal beat the Mancs, so this was a very welcome victory indeed. I would much rather we beat Man U and lost to Stoke, than the other way around. Thinking about it like that, maybe it wasn't such a bad week after all.
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