Once again the Arsenal youngsters showed their mettle, this time against a high-flying Man United team. The league leaders left their first encounter at Ashburton Grove empty handed, and it really was a super game. Various accounts have been given of the match, including a ridiculous match report in the Independent by Sam Wallace which is disgustingly biased and if you hadn't watch the game would give you the impression that Arsenal kicked and poisoned their way to a completely undeserved victory with a bunch of thugs, hooligans and charlatans, and Manchester United were a noble glorious force, cheated at the death, who basically deserved to have won 7-0 and didn't only through some self-induced philanthropic desire to throw the game away to that bunch in an attempt to spice up the title race. Nigel Spackman said post-match that it was a game that Manchester United had dominated from start to finish and that they were very unlucky to have lost. Steve McMahon rightly called him on his absurd views afterwards by saying that he didn't know what game Spackman watched, but it certainly hadn't been this one.

As Kurt Vonnegut would say... Listen:

The story was this - a confident, good United team started brightly, at a high tempo, and tried to dominate. In the first half, they did, and they had a lot of posession against a young, nervy Arsenal who tried to stick to their game but were being pegged back under a constant barrage of pressure. Jens Lehmann had saves to make, and he did (Wallace has erroneously reported that Rooney hit the bar when Lehmann in fact had saved; perhaps he too, like Spackman, was watching a different game). United had several chances right before half-time, but were unable to capitalise, and Arsenal came into the game in the second half. They largely tried to play their way, but mixed it up a bit. They started to show what they were capable of, dealt with United and started to impose themselves. And then on a counter-attack, United created their only real chance of the half and Rooney scored from it. It was a great run off-the-ball from Evra, a good cross and an excellent diving header from Rooney to score. In the media, fingers were being pointed - Fabregas didn't pick up Evra's run, Clichy had Rooney unmarked behind him, Toure got a touch on the cross as it went by but couldn't cut it out. But finger-pointing doesn't help, and we didn't dwell on it - these things happen in football, especially on counter-attacks... if you have players charging back the length of the field all at different speeds, and the ball is in behind you, it's difficult. Crucially, I think Gilberto was missed. As Arsene says, "he smells danger", and usually picks up the supporting and overlapping runs that fullbacks or midfielders make against us. 0-1 to the Mancs.

But again, no matter. The boys regrouped, and went for it. The second half was all Arsenal possession, all Arsenal dominance, and even if it was not effective at times, the direction of the game was changed. Man United played their part as well, after going a goal up, they sat back a little deeper (wary perhaps of Henry's pace), and Senderos and Cesc's probing long passes to Adebayor were starting to push them deeper and deeper. Then the subs came on. Van Persie in attack on for the innefectual Hleb, and Baptista more latterly for Flamini, to offer some more of a goal threat and experience. And Monsieur Wenger... take a bow, because the subs worked a treat.

With 6 minutes left, Cesc and Rosicky fought doggedly for the ball. Scholes and Evra were on the ground after having put in tackles, and 3 or 4 times the ball changed hands, but our two little dynamos never gave up. Never. Finally Cesc came away with the ball, and released Rosicky down the right flank. He crossed to the near post, Henry tried a cheeky backheeled-instep Kanu-versus-Boro flick type thing that didn't come off at all, but Robin Van Persie came screaming in at the far post to lunge and bang in an equaliser into the roof of the net off that precious left foot of his. He wanted it, and he got it. He covered loads of ground, and showed great hunger and anticipation to take the chance, and of course exceptional technqiue to direct the ball high and past Van Der Sar. 1-1.

With the pressure of defeat, and their unbeaten home record off, the team regrouped and went back for more. Then in the 3rd minute of stoppage time, Eboue played a terrific one-two with Rosicky, ghosted in behind the player at left-back (Heinze had come on to supplement Evra who moved upfield, and maybe they got confused), and he delivered a pacy, accurate cross into the box. Henry was lurking behind Vidic, and he jumped perfectly to thump a bullet header past Van der Saar. Magnificient stuff, and typical of Henry this season. He had faffed around the entire game, wasted a much easier headed chance from a great ball by Adebayor, and done not very much apart from having a penalty decision go against him (probably wrongly), and squabbled with Gary Neville the entire game. But cometh the hour, cometh the man. 2-1; game over.

Baptista has not been mentioned much, but he did well when he came on. Was positionally good, and supported the team well in defence and in attack. We all expect him to be scoring goals, but it's easy to forget that he started off as a defensive midfielder, and that he understands the position. Cesc, who was majestic all game really hung around the final third towards the end of the game, and Baptista helped him to do that. Everyone was good; Clichy was superb apart from their goal, Eboue was minimally dramatic, made some good tackles, had Ronaldo in his pocket and crossed for the winner. Senderos was decent, and although had donkey moments (including falling backwards while trying a simple pass to Toure), he was always alert to danger. Rosicky was wasteful and although involved, was ineffective for most of the game, but played a crucial part in both goals. Flamini worked hard as he always does. Hleb tried but failed on the day, and was probably the second worst player on the field after Henry, but Henry scored and he didn't, and that's the way it goes. Adebayor was probably man of the match, full of running excellent control and technique, and he always managed to hold up the ball and lay it off neatly. He created good chances for Henry and Cesc, and although he didn't really have a shot to speak of, he gave them massive trouble. Van Persie as I said earlier produced an excellent finish, but fractured his foot (metatarsal #5!) in doing so and that's a big worry now.

So Arsenal win 2-1 deservedly, and things become a wee bit more interesting. It's unfortunate that sections of the media have had a field day somehow managing to slam Arsenal for coming back and winning the game. In Paris, 10 men Arsenal had lots of possession and more shots, but lost. The media however had no hesitation in proclaiming Barca as worthy winners. I bet if Man United had been the ones to win that way, they would have been applauded for their "British spirit" and "never say die attitutude" and all that malarky. F*ck off.

Spackman and Wallace, you pair of twats, here are the stats (yes, yes it rhymes):

	Arsenal	Mancs
Shots (On Target)	19(11)	10(6)
Fouls	13	11
Corners	8	6
Offsides	1	2
Possession	53%	47%
Yellow Cards	1	3
Saves	4	7

Images shamelessly ripped off from the Beeb.

After my fellow OleOle blogger Gabriele's great piece on the Ballon d'Or award, here is my take on the whole issue.

It's difficult to argue that Henry didn't deserve it.

Firstly, we have to look at the one main fact - Juve were found to be cheaters. Match fixers. So their last two Serie A titles (and so many more) might be very, very illegitimate. Cannavaro and Buffon both having been playing for Juve (Cannavaro recently joined Real Madrid, but he would have been judged on his Juventus performances). That for me decides the entire issue, because a player who has been putting in good performances in a team that is cheating, should not be showered with praise. Even then, Cannavaro had an average season, and although Juve “won” Serie A, then never reached a particularly high level of football.

(I’m also very sceptical about people saying that the players involved were innocent. How can they not have known that something fishy was going on with the referees? They are not stupid, and they would know when things were going in their favour. But I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.)

As for Henry, he has always been overlooked. Who knows why, maybe because he speaks his mind a bit too often? He has been incredibly consistent for 7 years now, and we have seen many strikers struggle in the Premiership who've done well in other leagues (Crespo, Shevchenko, Forlan), so you can't say that the Premiership is easy. Henry has also won several European Golden Boots. He captained Arsenal to the Champions League Final in Paris (scoring crucial and brilliant goals against Real Madrid and Juventus), and went to the World Cup final with France (scoring against Brazil and some others). And Cannavaro was invisible when Arsenal beat Juve, and Henry scored.

While I think Cannavaro is a good player and a great defender (he was magnificent in his Parma days), he really doesn't deserve it. Over the last year he was not even the best defender in Italy or Juventus (both Thuram and Zambrotta were equally good at Juve), so calling him the best in Europe is quite extreme. Unfortunately, these awards are all about hype. Italy won the World Cup (after playing some uninspiring, average football), and so suddenly Buffon and Cannavaro jump ahead of Henry in the list. Both Petr Cech and Jens Lehmann were much, much better keepers over the last 12 months.

It is shocking to vote based on three or four weeks of football at the World Cup, when most of the best players have already given 150% for 65 games over the club season. The level of international football is - (1) much lower than club football, and (2) even worse at the World Cup, where there are so many rubbish teams

Yes, Italy had the best defence at the World Cup, but they still struggled against teams like Australia, Ghana and the USA. France played Spain, Brazil and Portugal on their way to the final, whereas Italy played Australia (Grosso diving badly to win a late penalty), Ukraine and Germany (whom they couldn't score against until the end of extra time). So there can be no question over quality. And it's not as if Buffon made exceptional saves, or saved any penalties... Trezeguet just missed his by centimeters, the ball going off the angle; Buffon was nowhere near it.

Hype. That is all that it’s about, hype and reputations. These players have not earned these awards, they have been gifted them. Voting for Cannavaro and Buffon was the sympathy vote for Juve going to Serie B, and for trying to improve the image of Italian football, and of course for FIFA’s rubbish quality football, money-spinning party – the World Cup.

Cannavaro played alongside great defensive players for club and country (Thuram, Emerson, Vieira, Zambrotta, Zebina, Nesta, Grosso, Materazzi and of course Buffon). Buffon meanwhile had the benefit of these players in front of him, People also forget that he was injured for a large part of Serie A, and that Abbiati was doing well filling in for him.Both Cannavaro and Buffon played with experienced, exceptional players, that helped them do their job.And let’s not forget about the match-fixing.

In contrast, Henry carried a team full of inexperienced, inconsistent youngsters on his shoulders to the Champions League final, and worked very hard to lead the line in a French team that was struggling to score goals. He was inspirational, especially in dragging Arsenal across the finish line to the 4th spot in the league.

There really should be no question over who should have won. In past years Henry had great rivals for the award, but this year he was the outstanding candidate, and really had no worthy rivals. But as usual, the realm of football’s operating bodies is based solely on bullshit. I wonder what was going through the minds of the football journalists who voted. Perhaps it was the contents of the nice fat envelope they maybe received from Luciano Moggi prior to the voting? ;o)

As Emmanuel Eboue stood there looking like the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time, Kieron Dyer took a neat touch and curled the ball past Lehmann. Once again, the Arsenal were 1-0 down at Ashburton Grove (Aston Villa, Middlesborough, Everton and now Newcastle), and once again the game followed a similar pattern. Although Newcastle were more ambitious than the previous incumbents (Everton), Arsenal still peppered forward and took control of the game, but to no avail. Just like against Everton, we were rescued by a brilliant free-kick from Thierry Henry (it was Van Persie the last time); and it needed to be brilliant. Shay Given, just like in the Highbury days, turned in an terrific performance, and he was inches away from the free-kick, which was so precise that it went in off the underside of the bar. Given is one of the shorter keepers around, so one wonders what an extra inch or two might add to his game (ladies, please control yourselves... that's not what I meant).

It's easy to throw around blame and look for excuses. Yes, Eboue's defending was not great, and he looked completely flatfooted, but it was a 2 vs. 2 situation, and those are very rarely easy to negotiate, especially when the last men back are both (slightly dodgy) fullbacks. Perhaps the team missed Gilberto as well, because so often in these situations he mysteriously materialises with his defensive instincts and helps out struggling defenders, or perhaps he would have dealt better with the ball that Obafemi Martins flicked on.

Let's also not forget that Kieron Dyer is a good player. Over the last two years he's basically shown himself to be inconsistent, horrible injury prone (is he worse than Aliadiere?) and a bit of a silly/chav type, but he is talented. Under Robson in his first 2 or 3 seasons at Newcastle he was easily one of the most promising young players in England with great pace and skill, and had it not been for Beckham, we would probably have made a fair few appearances on the right side for England. Point being that although the defending was sub-par, it still took a great finish to beat Jens. Perhaps Eboue, being a recent arrival in the Premiership, is not fully aware of his opponents' capabilities, or respectful of them, to afford them that kind of space. He'll learn.

Yesterday's events were all the more ironic given William Gallas' quotes about how we had to tighten up and make sure that we scored first, because of how we had struggled when conceding sloppy goals to the opposition. I think Newcastle can come away with their heads held high, because they showed a little bit of enterprise and didn't just stick 10 men behind the ball, but we could and should have made life more difficult from the start.

Adebayor is a good member of the squad, and at 21 will be a very, very good player as he gets better and more experienced. But yesterday we was more or less useless. He never seems to look confident when finishing, and could do with trying to wind up and whack it with his left sometimes rather than trying to "Thierry" the ball past the keeper. People compare him to Kanu (or rather, he compares himself to Kanu and people get taken in by this), but he is much quicker and more powerful than Kanu. Kanu however was much more skillful and clever than Ade. The problem with our Togolese striker, is that he doesn't maximise his best attributes (pace and power), and tries instead to focus on being a Kanu mimic (the fancy stuff), where he clearly has a long way to go.

The point of this is that we were playing against weaker opposition and needed to start positively and score a goal, but we just didn't have the personnel to do this. I'm a big fan of the way Arsene has gone about constructing his 4-5-1, and Robin Van Persie is gradually looking more and more effective in his role in it, but against a Newcastle defence featuring Peter Ramage, Craig Moore, Steven Taylor and the narcoleptic Titus Bramble, 4-4-2 was the way to go.

Henry was (rightly) rested, because Raymond Domenech had acted like the ridiculous cunt that he is and played him and Gallas for a full 90 minutes in a midweek friendly when Chelsea and Manchester United's players were allowed to play 45 each. So Baptista was given a start to provide a goal threat, but really he just ended up doing a bit of running around and then was subbed off for Theo Walcott. He hasn't played in over a month, and hasn't even had a reserve game to give him some sharpness, so thoughts of him popping up with a goal or two were more hopeful than anything else. We then lost the skill and guile of Robin to an injury, and Thierry came on for the second half, and once Baptista was replaced by Walcott, we attacked fervently with what looked like a 4-4-2, and could have gotten a winner if we were sharper.

Anyhow, I think there is still hope for the league. The problem is that after our unbeaten season and and Chelsea's highly consistent first title season, the bar has been raised. 3 or 4 years ago, we would not be written off with the points and results that we have, but it seems that the standards have increased to the point where people think you have to virtually go unbeaten to win the league. I think that this was more the exception to the rule - two freak seasons, rather than a raising of the bar - and that the league will be a lot more even this year. Last year, Arsenal and Manchester United failed to show up until January, and Chelsea had it easy (after sabotaging the transfer plans of both of those - Wright-Phillips and Essien). This year I think things will be a lot more interesting.