Arsenal 2-1 Manchester United – 21/01/07 – (Barclays Premiership) 22 January, 2007

What a fucking amazing game. Without doubt the best match so far at our new stadium. All the talk before the game was about who’ll play up front. Adebayor started with Henry but it took all four strikers to be on the pitch before we could score. Van Persie came off the bench to score the equalizer and Henry headed in Eboue’s cross to win it. Baptista wasn’t very influential but he was playing in a midfield position and didn’t get a chance to do anything.

The game started off as you’d expect. It was a bit shaky and nervous and nobody was going to force some early errors. I have to say I think we started off with having the most chances. United never really threatened a goal in normal time of the first half. Our centre backs were brilliant and had control of everything. Also before the game I was a bit worried about Ronaldo’s form but our full backs had him in their pocket the whole game. He started off on Clichy’s side but Gael was embarrassing the Portuguese winger; so he decided to switch wings and have a go at Eboue but it was the same story. I was also concerned about Paul Scholes but you didn’t even notice he was on the pitch. I just had to double-check the teams for yesterday to be sure he was. Fabregas was controlling the centre of the park with ease. And Henrik who? Our centre backs dealt with him easily and the veteran striker wasn’t able to create anything. I said this last week and how right I was:

“I can see it now, Senderos mastering Larsson, Clichy embarrassing Ronaldo and Fabregas dominating that ginger twat. We just have to hope that happens.”

We had a few decent chances in the first half but nothing clinical or making Van der Sar work. The best chances fell to the visitors in extra time. The ball came to Rooney on the edge of the box who fired a ball just going underneath the crossbar. Lehmann made a brilliant save to tip the ball over the bar for a corner. Giggs took it and it was dropping nicely for Henrik Larsson who headed downwards, towards the bottom corner. Lehmann dived low to his left and just managed to stop the Manc’s going in one up at half time. Jens showing why we should be looking to extend his contract and he can still do a job for Arsenal.

The second half started with a bang, Fabregas had an early long-range effort but it went straight into the arms of the ‘keeper. We were looking the dominant side again but we conceded on the counter attack. Ronaldo sprinted into our half and played a good ball to Evra who’d made a brilliant run. He played in a dangerous cross, Toure got a touch on it but it wasn’t enough and the ball fell nicely to Rooney had a free header from close range to make it 1-0 to United.

Arsenal picked up though after this, the crowd were getting behind the team and the boys were creating lots of chances. We were having some good shots on goal but nothing good enough to equalize. Cesc and Rosicky both coming close. Van Persie was brought on for Hleb in the 67th minute to help with the Arsenal attack. We had a sense of belief and the game was just non-stop attacking and non-stop time wasting from United.

In the 73rd minute there was a bit of a goalmouth scramble; Adebayor nearly managing to slide the ball in but the United players were just throwing their bodies at the ball and as a result Van der Sar went down injured for a few minutes. It was good for the visitors as they could slow down Arsenal’s momentum and take a break.

I was starting to wonder if this was going to be the day we lost our unbeaten run at the new stadium but in the 83rd minute Robin Van Persie came up with the equalizer to send 55,000 into hysterics. Rosicky got down the right and sent a low cross in. Henry tried a little back flick but his touch found Van Persie right by the far post. The ball was travelling at speed and it was a very tight angle but somehow our top scorer managed to steer the ball past Van der Sar into the roof of the net. I went mad jumping all over some old bloke next to me but I think he could understand my jubilation. It was a record attendance yesterday of 60,128 and they really made some noise at that goal.

Arsenal were definitely on top and we were pushing for the winner with 7 minutes remaining. Manchester United were tired and were hanging on for the draw. I said I’d take a draw before the game but now we were in a commanding position and all three points were there for the taking. I was praying for the equalizer but now I was thinking another goal would just be something special.

Thanks to United’s time wasting, cheating tactics we were awarded 4 minutes of extra time to find a winner, it took all four of them to do it and with the last touch of the game Thierry Henry headed in to give us the win. Eboue played in a great cross from the right and our skipper was perfectly positioned to head past the Dutch goalie. You thought we made some noise for the first goal but the second was something else. It was the most I’ve celebrated a goal since Campbell’s in Paris.

The stadium was pretty full at 94 minutes but as usual a fair number had left. I hope that teaches you now. The last game early-leavers missed two goals and a lot of them thought I’d be a good idea to stay this time however you could see hundred walking up the aisles at 1-1. I hope they heard us screaming as they were walking to the station.

The stadium was pretty full well after the final whistle; everybody was still celebrating, singing and waving the United fans off ahead of their long trip home. By far the best day at The Emirates, it would’ve taken a lot to beat the 3-0 win over spurs but this was miles better.

There was a negative point from the game though, Robin Van Persie has broken his fifth metatarsal celebrating the winner. He’s going to be out for a number of weeks and this is bad news for Arsenal to lost our top goalscorer. At least we’ve got good quality back-up in that position and it might just give Baptista the time to shine. Not quite sure how long Robin’s going to be out for but I’ll keep you updated.

It’s Arsenal vs. Spurs reserves tonight at Underhill. Get down to Barnet if you can tonight for the 7 o’clock kick off. Not sure what sort of team will play with the usual reserves making the trip to While Hart Lane on Wednesday but should be an interesting encounter. Entrance is fee by the way so why not? Have a good day, make sure you let some United fans know the score yeah?