FA Premier League/Arsenal 2 Manchester Utd 2:It is conceivable that Arsenal are heading for the title, but the leaders keep stopping to check the map. Hardly anyone in the squad has completed that journey with this club and Kolo Toure is the only player in the current line-up who was established in the side when the Premier League was last won, in 2004. The tentativeness and the degree to which Arsenal can overcome it make for an absorbing tale.
On Saturday the reigning champions were, by contrast, brisk and purposeful for much of their visit, as if they had memorised every step required to get through a challenge such as this. Even their newcomers grasped the procedures. Until he tired, Manchester United's expensive teenager Anderson was full of fiery ability in midfield and the combination of commitment and sporadically dubious behaviour witnessed at the weekend will make the Brazilian a cult hero to his own fans, a dastardly villain to others.
Arsenal were in trouble and the contrasts in the fixture stressed how compellingly idiosyncratic Arsene Wenger's philosophy of management truly is. The club, with its new stadium, could bankroll him more amply than ever before but he is ascetic in the transfer market and actually made a profit there in the summer. The fully developed signing does not much appeal to him.
With a game of growing fascination in delicate balance at 1-1, he brought on Theo Walcott, an 18-year-old yet to acquire the hardiness of someone like Anderson. Shortly afterwards, United introduced the fully mature, if injury-prone, Louis Saha. With eight minutes left, Patrice Evra burst away from Walcott, collected a superb reverse pass from Saha and rolled over the ball from which Cristiano Ronaldo put the visitors 2-1 ahead.
United did appear to have deeper resources but, as Wenger implies, that might be an illusion based on ignorance of what his relatively unfamiliar side has to offer. With this result the squad has now come up with a club record run of 25 fixtures unbeaten in all competitions. While Alex Ferguson's team would not let them be at their sleekest, Arsenal also ensured that United conceded two goals in a Premier League fixture for the first time since April.
Wenger's project is all the more absorbing for its incongruities. Manuel Almunia, preferred to Jens Lehmann for an unconvincing spell three seasons ago, is once again the more or less established choice in goal, even though his decisions seem to be made with a roll of the dice. The oddity of Arsenal is evident in attack as well, where, with Robin van Persie injured, Emmanuel Adebayor is the sole forward trusted to start a game such as this.
In his own arcane manner, Wenger is still achieving something remarkable and his men, fighting back for draws with Liverpool and United in successive weekends, are revealing tenacity. While Ferguson complained rightly that a foul should have been awarded before Arsenal notched their second goal in stoppage time, the same had been true of the visitors' opener at the very close of the first half.
Play continued and Ronaldo's low cross was met by Wayne Rooney, whose touch deflected the ball off William Gallas for an unlucky own goal. With Adebayor acting, on Wenger's instructions, as a more orthodox centre forward after that Arsenal did revive. In the 48th minute, the Togo striker met an Emmanuel Eboue chip to shoot against the advancing Edwin van der Sar and the alert Bacary Sagna cut the loose ball back for Cesc Fabregas to calmly roll in his 11th goal of the season.
Ferguson's post-match grumble about the referee, Howard Webb, was the displaced anger of a man whose team had not been ruthless enough when on top. After a lovely interchange with Ryan Giggs, for instance, Rooney had sent a sloppy header off-target in the 64th minute. United's manager brackets this game with last season's trip to the Emirates, when the stoppage-time goal for Arsenal was a winner.
The satisfaction of Wenger's men on Saturday, though, consisted of much more than relief. They had weathered adversity and re-emerged to ensure that the draw was a just result. Gallas, an extraordinary choice for captain in this campaign after many had depicted him as a malcontent, delivered leadership with an outstanding performance.
His experience helped the side keep some sort of check on a United attack already hindered by Carlos Tevez' weak showing. In the 36th minute, Gallas had given notice, too, of the danger he can pose by heading a Fabregas free-kick against the knees of Van der Sar. Even the unlucky own-goal did not subdue the Frenchman.
In stoppage time, Gael Clichy sent in an excellent cross and Walcott miskicked before Gallas made clean contact with a bouncing ball to angle a finish that was only clawed out by Van der Sar once it had crossed the line. It was question of a foot and there might be as little to separate these clubs over the course of the campaign.
