Saturday, 22nd Aug 2009 – KO: 15:00

We might only be three or four games into the season but this is without doubt crunch game for both teams.

"Never mind Arsene, old son, it's only a game." "I know, but I weelly, weelly wanted to win."

We should have some answers about whether Arsenal really are the real deal this season and whether or not Manchester United have gone backwards since the end of last season.

I must stress, however, the word “some” because with the league season still at this very early stage, there are many, many more questions that will only be answered much later on.

This being a home game for United and with us already having suffered a defeat (three points dropped), there will be far more pressure on us to win here today whilst Arsenal might be quite happy to grab a point from this one.

Arsenal may have only played two Premier League matches (and two Champions League matches) but they have won them all, scoring a very impressive 15 goals in the process.

However, great starts are not new for Arsenal, they always seem to hit the ground running but for the last few years at least seem to have just run out of a bit of steam around February.

I put most of this down to the motivational skills of Arsene Wenger. He always puts a positive spin on things and in the immortal words of Paul Merson “gives a player unbelievable belief”.

When you think you’re the best and that everything will go your way if you just keep trying, it is remarkable how often that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. For evidence of this, take a look at their two recent games against Celtic.

However, in the middle of a long-hard season, when the tank is starting to run a little dry, it requires more than a pep talk and self-belief, especially when the table is telling  you that it will require nothing less than a miracle to catch the leaders.

Our results last season against Arsenal were a mixed bag. They beat us 2-1 at their place in the League in November and held us to a 0-0 draw when we met in the penultimate match of the season.

Our best performances came in the Champions League Semi-Final however where we took them apart in both legs 1-0 and 3-1. The 1-0 at Old Trafford in the first leg was not a true reflection of the performance and Arsenal could have had few complaints if we had run out 2-0 or 3-0 winners in that match.

One player they missed in those games however was Arshavin who, being a January purchase from Zenit was cup-tied and could not play but I rate him very highly and clearly, so does Arsene Wenger (at 28 years old, Arshavin does not meet the typical profile of a Wenger purchase, so he must be something special). If he plays on Saturday, he will be a massive danger.

On the injury front, we have the usual suspects out. Our defence is still in some disarray with Ferdinand and Rafael still injured but everyone else is now coming back.

Arsenal’s only doubt (but it’s a big one) is Fabregas. Otherwise, apart from those long-term injured from before the start of the season, they are full-strength.

Games between these two teams used to be pretty nip and tuck affairs where the battle was contested largely around the midfield with neither team giving an inch. That both teams also had very strong defenses made the games low scoring affairs.

However, the 0-0 at the end of last season aside, they have become much more open games with plenty of goal-mouth action.

We know Arsenal are in rich scoring form at the moment but, despite the 5-0 win against Wigan last week, the jury is still out on us. We huffed and puffed to a 1-0 win against Birmingham then huffed and puffed to a 1-0 defeat at Burnley before huffing and puffing to a 0-0 half-time scoreline against Wigan and, even now, no one quite knows how to fit the five goal second half into place.

Personally, I think we are somewhere in between. Perhaps with a bit of the Wenger “unbelievable belief”, some of those many half chances we missed against Birmingham and Burnley would have been converted and a goal or two more in both games would have been forthcoming.

As I said earlier. Some questions will only be answered after this game which makes a prediction here pretty difficult.

I can see Arsenal scoring again and I can see United scoring but that is as far as I am willing to go on this one.

4 Points on BOTH TEAMS TO SCORE @ 1.80 with Bet365

The talk all week has been of Eduardo’s dive against Celtic which gave the Gunners the penalty which led to the third goal in the Champions League Qualifying tie.

The old arguments have been brought up about video technology being brought in for these decisions and whilst I don’t disagree with the idea in principle, I do feel that it is these little quirks that make the game so fascinating.

The fact that people have been talking about it all week proves the point.

I am a bit old school in my view that I believe that these things even themselves out during the course of a season.

It might be six months down the line, or it might be in the very next game. In this case, it was in the very next game.

The tricky Arshavin was clearly fouled by Fletcher who then seemed to clearly handle the ball in the follow-through, just for good measure. To everyone’s amazement, play was waved on and I cannot for the life of me see what the referee saw in that challenge that 75,000 other people missed.

Still, in the same move, an obviously aggrieved Arshavin blasted a shot past Foster (everytime I see a replay of the shot, it looks like Foster has it covered, but he seems to lower his right arm and then thrust it up again quickly, but not quick enough). Arsenal had taken the lead.

I’ve listened to various pundits today who say that Arsenal played us off the park in the first half. I must have been watching a different game. It is true to say that we did nothing to trouble Almunia in the first half but I thought we were giving a pretty good account of ourselves.

The problem was the formation. Fergie seemed to be experimenting with a sort of 4-3-3 come 4-5-1 formation with Valencia and Nani joining Rooney in attack. All too often though, it left Rooney isolated up-front and he hardly had any kind of service at all in the first half.

The midfield of Giggs, Carrick and Fletcher is arguably the strongest we have available at the moment and Fletcher was immense. Carrick did what Carrick does and Giggs was mostly frustrating in the first half and I felt certain that he would be coming off at half-time.

However, Fergie sent out the same team in the second half and it looked like much of the same as Foster saved brilliantly from Van Persie with his foot. This obviously acted as a wake-up call for United.

Giggs, of all people, played a decent-ish through ball for an ever-willing Rooney to chase. Rooney, like a dog with a stick, ploughed after it like his life depended on it. Almunia inexplicably decided to have a race with Rooney only to be beaten by a fraction. Rooney poked the ball away to somewhere he would never have scored from, Almunia was committed, made contact with Rooney. Penalty.

It was with some interest that we waited to see who would be taking the penalty and we were pleasantly surprised to see that Rooney himself was going to take it. Almunia had obviously done his homework as he dived to an area where Rooney ALWAYS places his penalties but Rooney outwitted him by going the other way.

A few minutes later, Giggs floated a free kick into the box. Almunia probably should have come out to claim in but instead left it to his defence. What happened next just defies explanation as Diaby headed the ball straight into his net. It may be that he got his angles wrong, it may be that he just has a funny shaped head. Whatever, it was 2-1 and United had almost completed a remarkable comeback.

But there was still plenty left in the game as Nani had a glorious (double) chance to put the game out of reach and Berbatov also had a great chance (provided by pass of the match from Nani) but completely missed the shot. It might be that the ball bobbled just as he was about to connect, Berby himself seemed to be blaming something on the ground but it doesn’t look great when your £30 Million striker fails to connect when through on goal and falls on his backside.

The chances at both ends kept coming and with a massive five minutes of extra time to be played, it really was a nervy end to the match and Rooney almost went from hero to zero as he was caught dwelling on the ball with several simple options to pass open to him, Arsenal swept forward and Van Persie put the ball into the net.

Fortunately (but correctly) the goal was ruled offside but I bet Rooney wanted the ground to eat him when he saw it go in.

This was the kind of game that football is all about. Two heavyweights slugging it out. A draw probably would have been a fair result but if Arsenal had nicked it, we couldn’t have had many complaints. There was some great football. Some really committed displays. One great goal. A penalty and an own goal. Loads of bookings. A bit of diving. A smattering of controversy.

Then, in the very last minute, Arsene Wenger, who had lived through this 96 minutes (yes, it went on that long in the end) along with the rest of us, saw his team grab an equaliser only for it to be ruled (correctly) offside.

He went from dancing along the touchline to kicking a water bottle that was on the touchline and if anyone cannot understand his emotions, they might as well visit the undertakers first thing tomorrow.

What happened to the guy next was an absolute disgrace. There must have been ten seconds left on the clock at this point but the officials sent Wenger to the stands. He didn’t quite know where to go and stood almost in the crowd, arms outstretched with thousands of United fans loving every minute of it.

It appeared to me like an exercise in public humiliation for the man. Once the officials were satisfied that they had had their pound of flesh, they blew the final whistle.

A great match. The footballers gave it their all and delivered the goods. The Officials, however, continue to do themselves no favours whatsoever.