A fifteen-pass move ended with Fabregas finding Nasri in space on the edge of the box. Unlike his predecessor Alex Hleb, Super Sam had no qualms in hitting the ball first time as he arrowed an unstoppable shot into the top corner

Match Review – Arsenal 2 Manchester United 1

Fulham. Hull. Stoke. The three sides we have lost to this season. With all due respect, they are not a patch on some of the teams we have overcome, including Porto and Fenerbahce, champions of their respective countries.

Now you can add to that list the name of Manchester United, the champions of England and Europe (a fact that they love ramming down everyone else’s throats). As Mean Lean has already stated, it truly was one of the most open, end-to-end 96 minutes of top quality football you are likely to see. In fact, I’d venture to say that in all of world football, only Arsenal and the Mancs could combine to provide such a spectacle.

Following a harrowing ten days that included an unforgivable draw against Bottenham Shitspur and a bruising defeat against Stoke Rugby Football Club, team selection was not as clear cut as it should have been going into such a big game. Would Gallas, Silvestre, Sagna and Walcott recover from various ailments to make the first XI? And would Johan Djourou keep his spot at the back following yet another fine performance in midweek? In the end, all the injury doubts made it through as Le Boss reverted to an all-French back-four. Where that leaves Kolo Toure in the pecking order is a question worth discussing another day.

The game got off to a bizarre start. Former Manc Mikael Silvestre, still sporting a broken nose, hit a weak back pass to the returning Almunia, who inexplicably decided to pick it up instead of clearing it. For a split second it seemed like the referee had missed the incident, but he correctly awarded an indirect free-kick to the visitors.

Prior to the game I had felt that the first goal would be vital – were the Mancs to get it, the crowd would get on Arsenal’s backs and we could have been on the end of a spanking. Barely a minute into the game and we had arrived at a crucial moment.

Anderson stepped up and his shot deflected out to the edge of the box, where Carrick’s effort went narrowly wide. Had Park got a touch, it would have been curtains. Had Carrick hit that shot a week-and-a-half ago in the white of Tottenham, I’m sure it would have crept in. Maybe our luck was changing?

The opposition certainly started brighter. A flowing counter-attack saw Almunia palm a Rooney curler into the path of Dimitar Berbatov, who knocked in the rebound. However, the former Spud was plainly offside and the linesman rightly ruled it out. That was the most threatening Berbatov was to be all afternoon as Gallas and Silvestre marshalled the Bulgarian very well indeed.

With rain pelting down, Arsenal found their feet. Most notably it was from the left-hand side that we carried our early threat. Clichy swung in a sumptuous cross for lone ranger Bendtner but the Dane couldn’t keep his header down, whilst minutes later a Nasri centre narrowly evaded Bendtner before doing the same to Theo at the back post. With only one natural forward on the pitch (and even he is more comfortable as a second striker than a target man), I had feared that we would be lacking in numbers in the opposition box, but these two occasions showed that both Diaby and Theo were willing to take a gamble.

Indeed it was Diaby who had our next effort on goal. Theo coerced a foul from his international team-mate Rooney, and the resultant free-kick was flapped at by Van Der Sar. The loose ball felt to Diaby, but his already skewed shot was deflected further wide.

The pendulum was swinging back and forth between two great footballing sides. And it was the champions who should have broken the deadlock just before the twentieth minute as Berbatov and Ronaldo combined to provide Rooney with a clear-cut chance. So often our nemesis, the Shrekalike somehow contrived to balloon his shot from twelve-yards out with the goal at his mercy. A big let-off. And while one could bemoan the fact that United were creating too many chances, you have to remember that they aren’t a bunch of mugs and were fielding about £100 million of attacking talent.

Then midway through the half, the big moment. Another free-kick from a dangerous position was only partly cleared by the Mancs and the ball arrived at Nasri’s feet. The fact that it was on his weaker side some twenty-yards out did not quell the Frenchman’s ambition to shoot, add his rifled effort took a wicked deflection off Gary Neville to flash past Van Der Sar. A lucky break? For sure. Do I give a fuck? Absolutely not. Lady Luck – the most elusive of all women – had finally smiled at The Arse.

This Arsenal side has many good points, but what it lacks is maturity. Maybe it’s because Man Utd are such a forceful side, but after the goal we were unable to simply hold onto the ball and take the sting out of the game. The pressure nearly told immediately as a United free-kick glanced off the forehead of Clichy and agonisingly – but gratefully – wide of the post. To have conceded so soon after taking the lead would have been criminal. Lady Luck certainly had her red and white tinted glasses on.

She smiled on Clichy again soon thereafter as he seemed to flick an arm at a ball in the penalty area. She evened things out towards the end of the half, however, as Diaby stomped through on goal and was seemingly felled by Carrick, but the ref didn’t budge. The replays showed that if there was contact, it was minimal. Half-time and 1-0 to The Arsenal.

During the break Jamie Redknapp in the Sky studio commented that Arsenal would definitely need a second goal to win the game. I would go one further than that – we needed to score a second before the Mancs grabbed an equaliser. Such is the fragile state of our confidence these days, I felt that a United equaliser would have been a certain precursor to them getting a winner.

My prayers were answered shortly after the break. A fifteen-pass move ended with Fabregas finding Nasri in space on the edge of the box. Unlike his predecessor Alex Hleb, Super Sam had no qualms in hitting the ball first time as he arrowed an unstoppable shot into the top corner. It actually felt weird seeing the ball burst the onion bag – when was the last time we scored a goal with power from such a distance? Massive credit must go to Theo, whose right-to-left run created an acre of space for Nasri to work in. The likes of Fabregas, Flamini and Hleb had three years to hone their partnerships. Only three months into their first season, the new trio of Fabregas, Nasri and Walcott had begun to pay dividends.

Some Gooners who derided Nasri as a “flop” after a couple of indifferent performances were being forced to eat humble pie. And I’m sure when the lad has just scored a brace against the arch-enemy, that slice of pie tasted very, very sweet. A scoop of ice-cream with that, guv’nor?

Just like after the opener, however, we weren’t able to consolidate our position. Ronaldo came within inches of equalising ASAP but he guided his sidefooted effort past the post having got on the end of Park’s dinked cross. Had that gone in, the outcome would have been massively different.

As it was, the nerves had not disappeared despite the extra-goal cushion. In fact they may even have increased, with the Hotspur Horror Show still painfully fresh in the mind. In the George Graham days a 1-0 lead was seen as safe. Throughout Wenger’s reign a two-goal surplus has generally been considered as good enough. Now, however, it seems like only being three up will allow the fans to breathe easy.

Our search for that priceless third goal was restricted to counter-attacks as United, unsurprisingly, looked to force the issue. Theo scuffed a shot following another crisp passing move, whilst Ronaldo provided the greatest threat at the other end as he dribbled through the Arsenal defence but his cross-shot was straight at Almunia. The Spanglish One also showed safe hands to claim a downward Rooney header. After coming under fire for his performances against Spurs and Stoke, the keeper looked back to something near his best.

Almunia’s match was to be cut short following an unintended kick to the head by Carrick. The incident came slap bang in the middle of a United’s biggest spell of pressure and provided a welcome respite for the resolute defence, especially the much maligned Gallas and Silvestre. For those bemoaning our skipper’s apparent lack of leadership skills, have a look at him going around and rallying the troops during that injury break. His stock rose early last season following vital goals against the Mancs and Chelsea, before falling dramatically after THAT game at Birmingham. Now I hope it is back up to the level where it should be following committed and commanding performances here and against West Ham a few weeks ago.

The defence – even if less than composed – had done well enough to render Berbatov useless and Rooney frustrated, with the latter being replaced by Tevez. The discrepancies in the respective squad’s attacking options on the day were shown by the benches: while we had three teenagers in the form of Ramsey, Wilshere and Vela, United had the multi-million pound luxuries of Giggs, Nani and Tevez.

Yet it was the man of the hour in the thick of the action. Nasri ran through on goal and got the better of Vidic, who had a fistful of the Frenchman’s shirt. Having seen the replays it was a certain penalty, but the referee should be cut some slack as there was no way he could have seen that. The linesman on the other hand could have given it, but even he was on the other side of the pitch – surely this incident is the perfect example of why the beautiful game needs four linesmen as opposed to two?

Alongside Fabianski came the usual defensive substitutions – with Song giving a useful cameo in a defensive midfield role alongside Denilson, whilst Kolo popped up in the unfamiliar position of right-winger. We had a few openings on the break but couldn’t convert – particularly Nicklas Bendtner, who I thought performed admirably in a job that he is not suited for. A lone striker has to be more of a robust Drogba/Adebayor/Eto’o type, whilst Bendtner is closer to Bergkamp in terms of style so I wouldn’t criticise the young Dane too much. Let’s put it this way – he was a darn sight better than he was against Stoke and Fenerbahce. He thrives in tandem with a more direct partner, so watch him in his element alongside Vela in the Carling Cup this week.

The contest entered the final minute of normal time. And just like against Spurs, our *comfortable* two-goal lead was halved. Instead of a big name sub like Giggs or Tevez, it was the unheralded Rafael da Silva who ensured a nail-biting final period as he latched on to a loose ball on the edge of the box and lashed home a left-foot volley. With finishing like that, I wouldn’t be surprised if he is related to our own Eduardo.

To considerable horror, the fourth official indicated a whopping SIX minutes of injury time. SIX. FUCKING. MINUTES. Could we hold on? Or would we get a deadly dose of déjà vu?

The players hadn’t learnt their lesson. With United pouring forward and our defence holding admirably firm, it was the job of the midfield and the forwards to take responsibility and ensure that we didn’t gift United the ball by trying a Hollywood pass or an unnecessary backheel. Yet the front players refused to run the ball into the corner. Both Bendtner and Kolo had chances to do so but instead decided to come inside into traffic and inevitably lost the ball, thereby putting the defence under more pressure. Even the golden boy, Cesc Fabregas, was guilty of looking to thread the ball through the eye of a needle instead of playing the percentages game – just like he was against Tottenham. I personally felt that he was again below-par compared to his own high standards, but at least the passion was there on his part. And of course, he had a major hand in the second goal.

In the end, United didn’t cause any heart-in-mouth moments in injury time. Had we somehow contrived to concede an equaliser, it would have been all of our own making. We didn’t, and we now leapfrog them into third place (although they have a game in hand).

With a matchwinning performance like that, Samir Nasri is a shoo-in for my Top Gun. However, I would like to mention my unsung hero of the day – Denilson. Many of you will disagree, no doubt. But the Denilson I saw against the Mancs was a HUGE improvement on the one at Fulham in August. He may have given the ball away a few times (I personally can’t remember many, but I’m sure his detractors will), but he closed down well, showed tenacity, put his foot in, and was generally neat and tidy in possession. Does that description sound familiar? I think we were saying similar things about a certain Mathieu Flamini twelve-months ago. The problems for the young Brazilian, as it is for the rest of our kids, is one of consistency. Don’t forget he is only 20 – so he WILL get better with time.

This game was only ever going to go one of two ways: either United would score first and completely annihilate us on the break, or we would front-up and make a real gladiatorial contest of it. Fair play to the Mancs, a bit more luck or clinical finishing on their part could have resulted in an entirely different story. The days of me personally detesting them have given way to a grudging respect and their achievements have to be applauded, especially because they have played some good stuff along the way.

There has never been any doubt over the talent this Arsenal side contains – but what has apparently been lacking are intangible characteristics such as resilience in the face of adversity and application against the lesser lights. This victory is massive, not just because it is three points gained whilst our direct rivals got zero, but also in terms of confidence. The players and the manager are not blind or deaf, they know that the fans have been disgruntled as of late. A win over the enemy should restore some faith in the hearts and minds of both players and fans. The manager, of course, has never been lacking in faith – and he was vindicated here.